


The Tanaka & Noya Show

by AVernedi



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Background Relationships, Demisexuality, Ensemble Cast, Families of Choice, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, Masturbation, Porn with Feelings, Self-Discovery, Slice of Life, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:42:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 82,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26901598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AVernedi/pseuds/AVernedi
Summary: "Buck up buttercup," Ryuu said. They had reached the edge of the skatepark. He let his skateboard down in a controlled drop, wheels to the smooth concrete. "If the interview with Daichi-san goes well enough maybe you can get him to give you Asahi-san's number."And just like that, he was back in the game. "Ryuu," Noya said proudly. "You're a genius.""I know, kiddo." Ryuu gently set Kiyoko's things down on the concrete bench that jutted out the rest off the skatepark, his movements contrasting wildly with the smirk on his face. "You ready to meet me in the snake run?""Born ready."They were gonna interview Daichi next Saturday night. Six days. In six days, he was gonna potentially have Azumane Asahi's number.A grin split his face.Ballin'.Noya is a late night show host who has a crush on the dude who plays basketball at the park. Asahi is the dude who plays basketball at the park.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu
Comments: 103
Kudos: 159





	1. Ballin'

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I started writing this story because I wanted to write an asexual-spectrum Asahi making his way in the adult world. Then then narrative grew arms and legs of its own.  
> 2\. Tanaka & Noya is a bit of an homage to the inimitable Desus & Mero, late night show hosts from the Bronx.

Noya and Ryuu always went to the same park to kick it. It was right by their work, just off the train station. There was a skate park, basketball courts, a community pool, and a large plaza where old ladies came at night to lead community dancing. They always took their skateboards and spent a few fun hours pulling stupid tricks to try to impress each other, and chatting with the other skaters, and just generally getting loose before work. 

There were other regulars at this park of course. Noya and Ryuu knew the other skaters best, mostly teenagers and college students looking to burn off energy after classes. But there were also people like Ukai Senior and his squad of retirees who were weirdly good at the hacky sack. And then there were the basketball players.

Which. _Hell yeah_. The basketball players.

Noya saw this particular squad every Sunday, and always around lunchtime. There were three of them, one slender guy, and two bigger dudes, real slab-of-beef kind of guys. The slender one was almost pretty, with silver hair and an honest-to-God beauty mark under one eye. The first of the bigger dudes had a booming voice and short dark hair and what the kids these days might call a bike-seat jawline. And the last guy was, quite simply, the most gorgeous person ever to grace Noya's bisexual little field of vision. He had long hair and big soft eyes and this flustered little smile that showed up whenever his friends were teasing him. 

Noya could still remember the first time he'd seen it. He had been sitting on a bench opposite the basketball court, skateboard sliding back and forth idly under his feet, slurping his boba tea and waiting for Ryuu to finish taking a piss. Mr. Silver Hair had poked the giant in the side, saying something Noya couldn't hear, and Mr. Giant had brought one hand up to rub at the back of his neck, quiet grin seeming to form almost in spite of himself. Watching it happen, Noya had been struck with the overwhelming urge that came to forceful, out-going people sometimes, the urge to do anything in the world to get this shy stranger to laugh. 

Ryuu had caught him staring, not that Noya had been trying to be subtle. "Which one do you like?" he'd asked, and it was a testament to how chill his best friend was about the whole bi thing, that Noya didn't even feel the need to stop looking now that he'd been caught.

"Long hair," he'd said easily, tipping his chin to indicate. 

Noya could hear the easy shift in Ryuu's posture as he watched them too from his vantage point behind the bench. "Not bad," Ryuu agreed finally. Then Noya felt him nudge his shoulder. "Come on," he said. "Bet I can stick the grind rail harder than you."

Noya turned his head, already grinning. "Bet you can't."

Now in the present, it was Sunday again. They were joined by Ryuu's wife Kiyoko and the three of them had just gotten their daily boba. Ryuu took off his navy windbreaker and laid it out for her as they moved to settle on the bench opposite the basketball court. The park was relatively empty owing to the rain earlier. 

"Are those them?" she asked, keeping her volume discrete as Ryuu slung one arm along the back of the bench behind her. All three of them looked to the basketball court. Noya took a deep, contented breath.

"Yup."

The three men were playing alone on the court today. The drainage was decent but the rubber was still decidedly damp. The gorgeous giant had his hair half up, and despite the slight chill in the air he was wearing a sleeveless muscle tank. It was a good look. Noya kicked his legs out in a v-shape and let himself take in the sights.

"Oh," Kiyoko said, almost to herself. Both Ryuu and Noya turned to look at her. "That other man with him. That's Sawamura Daichi. You're interviewing him next week."

Tanaka and Noya were hosts of the local station's late night commentary show, called, well, _Tanaka & Noya_. Supposedly it made them local celebrities but really, only to a certain demographic. Nobody over the age of 40 had any idea who they were. The show had a strong following though, and they'd even gotten written up in the paper a few times for "getting the youth to care about current events" or whatever. And as it turned out, the one person making the youth excited about the upcoming municipal elections was local vice principal Sawamura Daichi.

"Oh huh," Noya said. He and Ryuu tilted their heads in a kind of unison. "Really?"

"No way," Ryuu decided, even though he knew Kiyoko was right. Noya knew what he meant. They had read the briefing, but the attached newspaper clipping with its staged-candid photo of some high school office, didn't equate to seeing the dude in real life, in workout clothes, sweaty and laughing with his friends. But now that Kiyoko had pointed it out, it was totally obvious.

It was the sweat and the laughing with the friends in particular that made Noya make a snap decision. "Let's go," he said, pushing himself up off the bench. The back of his soccer shorts were damp but they were black so it probably wouldn't be noticeable. 

"Go where?" Ryuu was already getting up to follow him. 

"I wanna see if they'll let us play ball." He turned as he spoke, walking backwards towards the court, skateboard tucked up under his arm.

"Oh yeah?" Ryuu scooped his jacket off the bench as Kiyoko stood. Even though they were only walking the short distance from the bench to the basketball court, he insisted on carrying her bag for her.

"Yeah man. It'll be a good chance to build that interview chemistry." Noya wiggled his eyebrows as he said it so that Ryuu knew he wasn’t pretending to not have an ulterior motive. 

"Oh yeah?" Ryuu repeated, wiggling his eyebrows back. "You gonna build that chemistry?" He nudged Noya with his bony elbow.

Noya nudged him back. "Gonna build that chemistry bro."

Kiyoko, bless her calm, collected heart, breezed right past them. "Sawamura-san," she called, waving to draw the attention of the three men on the court. "Good to see you."

"Oh hello." Sawamura turned to face them more fully. They were all sweating from the middle of their game. His taller friend had been guarding him. Between the two of them there was a lot of barrel-chests-rising-and-falling action and Noya was _not_ complaining. Sawamura regarded Kiyoko with polite neutrality, clearly wondering if he was supposed to know her from somewhere. His silver-haired friend was faster.

"Oh, it's Tanakoya!" he said brightly. It was a reference to the name their fans called them, as though they were some kind of two-headed beast. Sometimes it felt like they were. Sawamura's eyes found them for the first time and recognition colored his face.

Noya slung his arm over Ryuu's shoulders as Ryuu crossed his arms. They grinned as one. Mr. Silver Hair smiled back, open and friendly. The giant was watching them all with a gentle confusion that was completely disarming on someone so tall and ripped.

"From the studio," Sawamura said. He looked back and forth between them and Kiyoko. "Are you the one I spoke to on the phone?"

"Yes, Shimizu," Kiyoko confirmed. She still worked under her maiden name to differentiate herself from Ryuu. 

"Nice to see you," Sawamura said politely. "What brings you here?"

"We hit the skatepark before work," Noya said, the arm that wasn't slung around Ryuu’s shoulders lifting his skateboard. "Can we play with you?"

Three pairs of eyebrows jumped at the direct question. Noya was unembarrassed. Never any reason to not beat around the bush. He studied the giant's face, curious for any reaction there in particular. If the faint blush that rose was any indication, the other man mostly seemed startled to find Noya looking at him so blatantly.

"You play?" Sawamura asked, drawing Noya's attention away. 

Noya shrugged. "Just pickup mostly."

"Who needs experience?" Ryuu asked with Noya's favorite shark-like grin. "We have raw athleticism." 

Noya flashed his teeth in his own version of the expression. "Damn straight." 

"Will you play with us, Shimizu-san?" Mr. Silver Hair asked politely. Kiyoko nodded and began digging in the pockets of her tracksuit for a hairband. 

"Two-on-three doesn't seem fair otherwise..." Her voice trailed off with a little frown and her hands redoubled their efforts in her pockets.

"Lose your hair tie?" Ryuu asked, recognizing the gesture. "Want me to check in your purse?" As he spoke, he already moved to open the flap.

"Here," a soft baritone voice said. The giant was stepping closer now, running one hand off his wrist, where Noya could now see an extra hairband. With a start, Noya realized he'd never properly heard him talk before. "Take mine." There was that shy smile again. It _did_ things to Noya and it had never even been directed at him.

Kiyoko's slender hand reached out, looking impossibly delicate against his, as she plucked the hair tie from his fingers. "Thank you ...?" She trailed off in the way that meant she was asking for a name.

"Azumane," he said, the hand that had offered the hair tie now reaching up to tuck some flyaway lock behind his ear. "Asahi."

"Oh we've been rude," Mr. Silver Hair said. "Of course we all know who you are but you don't know us. I'm Sugawara, but call me Suga."

"Nice to meet you, Suga-san," Kiyoko said, like the well-bred woman she was.

Ryuu and Noya on the other hand had been raised by wolves. "Now that we got the introductions outta the way," Noya said, "are we gonna play ball?"

Of the three of them, Kiyoko actually had the most experience with basketball, though she hadn't played since high school. Still, Ryuu and Noya had only been half-joking about raw athleticism. Ryuu was actually slightly taller than Sawamura and Suga, and could dunk like it was easy. Noya, small though he was, could twist in and out of the larger players before they knew he was gone. Between them and Kiyoko's reliable 3-point shot, they managed to hold their own.

If playing pickup was any indication, interviewing Daichi (somewhere in the first fifteen minutes, they had all gotten on a first name basis) was going to be chill as hell. He and Asahi and Suga were consummate sportsmen, never treating Kiyoko like she needed to be babied, and seeming to take Ryuu and Noya's trash talk for the easy camaraderie it was meant.

"Hair in your eyes there, Asahi-san?" Ryuu called as the guy's shot from inside the key bounced off the rim. 

Asahi huffed slightly, watching the ball roll out of bounds before looking at Ryuu with an awkward laugh that meant he was genuinely annoyed with himself.

Noya was speaking before he had a chance to think. "Maybe it was," he interjected, smacking Ryuu on the back of the head. "What was your excuse when you didn't see me for the alley-oop earlier, skinhead?"

"Hey!" Ryuu's chest puffed. "No need to attack a guy's aesthetic choices!"

"Dumbass! What were you _just doing?_ "

A surprised snort burst from Asahi's mouth. Noya glanced up and felt his eyes go wide because Asahi was already looking at him. He was already looking and there it was. That shy smile. Turned to Noya. 

Noya was _definitely_ staring.

"Tanaka-san!" Suga called at that moment, from where he had fished the ball from the grass. "Your team has possession!"

Getting to play a contact sport against the guy Noya had been casually crushing on for the better part of six months was a highly enjoyable experience. 

Late in the game, Asahi was guarding the net. Noya had slipped right up to it and Asahi had cornered him, and Noya suddenly realized he'd misjudged how close he was to being out of bounds. He turned his body to shield the ball, and Asahi was right behind him, arms spread in that textbook pose, blocking him, and just. _Holy shit_. Noya gave himself two seconds longer than strictly necessary, just to enjoy the experience. He could smell Asahi's sweat, mixing pleasantly with his deodorant and shampoo, and the _heat_ coming off him? All that presence? Damn. 

Then the two seconds ended and Noya pulled off a decent pass to Kiyoko who'd managed to slide into his field of vision ahead of Suga. She was just going up for the shot when someone's alarm went off, distracting the men. The ball swished neatly through the net.

"Sorry," Daichi said, heading over the bench to fish his phone out of the pocket of his sport's bag. "That's our ten-minute warning." 

"No worries," Noya said. "Next point wins?" 

Daichi raised his eyebrows at him. "That sounds like a convenient bet when you guys are down 45 to 38." 

"What's the matter Sawamura?" Ryuu asked. "Scared?"

"Why should I be conned into taking a deal that's better for you than us?" His voice was even but Daichi was grinning.

"Ryuu," Kiyoko said placidly. "Maybe Daichi-san and his friends have already peaked. You shouldn't pressure them."

Noya could feel his eyes shining. Ryuu was looking at his wife with an open-mouthed grin. Kiyoko so rarely got sassy.

"Oh my Daichi," Suga said, slipping up beside him, completely unruffled. "The lady is calling us out."

Daichi just shook his head tolerantly, glancing over at Asahi. The shyness, Noya was discovering, greatly eased when it came to matters of the court. Asahi had a game face on. It made the arched eyebrow he sent Daichi look almost cocky.

"Alright," Daichi said, turning back. "Next point wins." 

Asahi and Ryuu were the centers. They stood toe to toe in the middle of the court while Suga held the ball between them. Despite their height difference, Ryuu had been making a good showing at the tip off, his killer vertical more than compensating for his size. Noya watched with laser-sharp focus as they jumped.

Ryuu got the ball, tipping it behind him for Noya to sweep up, feet pounding past the center line. Suga appeared in front of him. Noya tried to feint around him but Suga was weirdly good at intercepting and the ball was out of Noya's hands before he could blink. 

"Asahi!" Suga leaned dangerously far back as he jumped, lobbing the ball in a high arc towards the net, his teammates running to meet it.

 _It's too high,_ Noya thought. _Not even Asahi could_ —

And then Asahi jumped. Three feet off the ground, he grabbed the ball one-handed and slammed it into the hoop.

Noya and Ryuu lost their _minds_. 

"Holy shit! _Holy shit!_ " Noya was jumping around, grinning like a maniac. There was a wash of aroused heat over his body. That was definitely the hottest thing he'd seen this month. Who cared that they'd lost? "Did you _see_ that!"

"Who is this man?" Ryuu demanded, clapping both hands on Asahi's back. Asahi's shy little smile was back. " _Who is he_?"

"He's Lebron!" Noya said, still jumping. "He's Jordan!"

"Thanks guys..." Asahi said, rubbing the back of his neck. There was a flush of pink over his cheeks but he looked pleased with himself. It was so cute it made Noya want to rip his shirt. He was aware he had stopped jumping so he could observe it better.

"Nice one, Ace," Daichi said, bringing a hand to the back of Asahi's neck. Asahi's smile stretched. 

"Sorry to cut the celebration short," Suga said, injecting himself gracefully into the little circle they'd created. "But we'll be late if we don't leave now."

"Oh right." Daichi's hand dropped from Asahi and Noya briefly wondered if there was something between them. "It was great playing with you guys. I'm actually looking forward to the interview now."

"You sayin' you weren't before?" Ryuu asked with a knowing grin. 

Daichi grinned back, a little sheepish. "I don't like interviews." 

"You'll like us," Noya promised. "We're cool."

"I don't doubt that." 

"Oh, Asahi-san," Kiyoko said. "You hair tie." 

"Keep it," Asahi said. "I have more with me."

Kiyoko nodded in thanks. "You're very kind." Noya got a little thrum of delight as Asahi ducked his head at this. Everything he did was adorable, Noya's brain couldn't compute it.

They all waved as they left the basketball court, Noya, Ryuu, and Kiyoko headed to the skatepark, and their new friends headed off towards the block of new high-rise buildings that surrounded city hall. The minute Noya judged them to be out of ear-shot, he punched Ryuu in the shoulder, unable to contain his excitement anymore.

"Holy shit dude, _holy shit!_ "

"Ow!" Ryuu rubbed his shoulder. "I know dude, I saw you."

"Dude, he's so _cute_." He could hear Kiyoko chuckling softly at him, but he didn't care. "Ugh, he's so cute!" He pulled his shirt up over his face. 

"You should get his number," Ryuu said, slinging his arm over Noya's shoulder. Noya let his shirt drop.

"Yeah? You don't think he was with one of 'em?" He remembered Daichi's hand on the back of Asahi's neck. A week ago, when he was still relatively unattached, it would have been kinda hot to think about. Now, Noya knew how that gentle laugh sounded up close and knew what if felt to have Asahi smile at _him_ , and he knew that his casual crush was putting down some hardcore roots.

"Dunno," Ryuu said reasonably. "But unless you got telepathy you've been keeping from me, you won't figure it out by staring at him like you were." 

Noya was 27 and way too experienced at being in his own body by this point to feel embarrassed. "Probably," he agreed. 

"You could have asked him to come watch Daichi-san's interview." Kiyoko sounded regretful that the idea had only just occurred to her. Noya clapped both hands to his hair. 

"You're right! Gah, that would have been great." He'd been out of the dating game too long if that hadn't occurred to him, it was so obvious. 

"Buck up buttercup," Ryuu said. They had reached the edge of the skatepark. He let his skateboard down in a controlled drop, wheels to the smooth concrete. "If the interview with Daichi-san goes well enough maybe you can get him to give you Asahi-san's number."

And just like that, he was back in the game. "Ryuu," Noya said proudly. "You're a genius." 

"I know, kiddo." Ryuu gently set Kiyoko's things down on the concrete bench that jutted out the rest off the skatepark, his movements contrasting wildly with the smirk on his face. "You ready to meet me in the snake run?"

"Born ready." 

They were gonna interview Daichi next Saturday night. Six days. In six days, he was gonna potentially have Azumane Asahi's number.

A grin split his face. _Ballin'._


	2. Please Welcome to the Studio...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild CW for referenced homophobia in this chapter.

Asahi was on the phone with Suga. "The dark wash jeans, the ones we bought together, remember?" he was in the middle of explaining. Suga was out right now, running errands and among other things, getting alcohol for their post-interview celebration. "And that one v-neck, the blue gray one?" He was rifling through his closet as he spoke, pulling out the items and hanging them on the hooks on the open closet door. 

"Perfect," Suga approved. Asahi warmed. He had always had an interest in fashion but it felt easier to acknowledge that things would look good on him if Suga was telling him they looked good on him. "What about accessories?"

"I was thinking the leather cord necklace my sister made? With the gray ankle boots." 

"I love it," Suga said firmly. "You have mine all laid out already?"

"Yeah, on the bed. I put Daichi's there too."

"You're the best, Asahi."

Asahi hummed, a small smile tugging at his mouth. His eye caught the watch that Daichi had given him for his birthday and he added that to the collection. It seemed fitting.

The studio had told Daichi he was more than welcome to bring a guest to the interview. Daichi had asked to bring two and the request had been approved. Suga, as Daichi's partner, got first priority of course. But Asahi had been one of Daichi's best friends since they were twelve, back when Daichi was the only thing standing between him and everything scary about the world. Daichi wanted him there tonight and Asahi was eager to get to go. He was proud of the man his friend had grown into.

Asahi had moved in with them once they had graduated university, and between the three of them, they were able to afford an apartment in a nicer part of town. Not that Asahi cared that much about what was nice. He was just happy to be living with his friends. 

"I can't wait to see what you picked for him," Suga was speaking again. "He's going to look so good on camera, Asahi." Pride was evident as it seeped through his friend's voice. 

"He is," Asahi said. "And you will too. I mean, you won't be on camera. Obviously. But you'll look good!"

"Thanks Beard-kun," Suga said with an affectionate laugh. "They asked him what kind of beer he wants to drink tonight, did I tell you that? And what we want to drink too. This is going to be _so_ much fun."

Asahi hummed encouragingly. "So fun," he agreed.

Asahi had seen _Tanaka & Noya_, of course. It was Daichi who had found it first, looking for something to wind down to after a long day's work. It hadn't been long before Asahi and Suga had joined him, Suga tucked into his side and one of Daichi's arms draped along the top of the couch behind Asahi's head, as they all laughed at the antics of the two men on screen.

"Tanakoya" as the fans called them, were funny and direct and surprisingly down-to-earth. They were loud personalities and they looked it, Tanaka with his shaved head and the tattoo running up his neck, and Noya with his spiky fade haircut and dyed blue bangs. The show had an informal atmosphere and they both drank openly during it, a bottle of beer visible on the reporting desk at each of their elbows. Not that they ever seemed to get drunk; their words never slurred and their commentary was never any less bitingly funny.

Asahi had always admired them. He admired people who could make being on camera seem easy, to whom confidence seemed as natural as breathing. Still, it wasn't until the incident with that one volleyball player that Asahi began to consider himself a genuine Tanakoya _fan_. 

It had been all over the news for a week. Oikawa Tooru, star setter for the Japanese national team, was gay. He was gay, he had a partner, and he was unapologetic about it. The media had had a frenzy. It had given Asahi an extra thrum of anxiety that lasted for days, his stomach turning whenever he thought about the hateful things people were saying about someone they didn't even know. 

_Tanaka & Noya _ had been the one oasis in the desert. Asahi would never forget it. He, Suga, and Daichi had watched it together over two bottles of hot sake because it had been an unseasonably cold week and they all needed a drink.

"Oikawa is a symbol of what men are becoming in this younger generation," said news anchor Sato Yudai, in the clip Tanaka and Noya were about to react to. "Overly groomed, weak-wristed, and a sad imitation of what masculinity should be."

"The stupid thing about this," Noya had said, "is look how cool Oikawa looks." Hands tucked behind his head, leaning back in his seat, Noya had seemed unaffected by the hatefulness of Sato's comments. Asahi had envied that ease so much that his body _ached_. The show's graphics had shown the picture of Oikawa that had been in the news all week, head held high despite the slew of microphones in his face, his posture like royalty. "He's cut as fuck," Noya had continued. "He's got skin like a baby's ass..." 

Suga and Daichi had laughed out loud at that.

"I know, right?" Tanaka had agreed. "Also doesn't this guy have like two Olympic medals? Like damn, if he's not man enough what does that make the rest of us?"

"What does that make _Sato?_ "

"Noya," the soft, ever-present voice of the third cast member, Kiyoko, had said. She was always seated just off screen and her job seemed to be to move the show along. "Do you want to talk about your tweets this week?"

"Oh riiight," Tanaka had said, reaching for his beer. "When are they gonna let you out of Twitter jail?"

"I got two more weeks." Noya grinned unrepentantly and reached for the notes in front of him. The tweets in question had appeared on screen. They had earned Noya an account suspension.

"Sato Yudai," Noya had read. " _You're_ the one with the limp wrists, and I bet ¥500,000 on Oikawa beating the shit out of you and every other weak-ass trash-talking news anchor in the parking lot behind the Ariake Arena, any date and time you want. Hope you're ready to get bitch-slapped." The cocky tone of his voice belied the fact that the tweet had been in all caps. And that there had been an attached picture of ¥500,000 on what was presumably Noya's kitchen table.

It was over the top and wildly inappropriate, and yet it had soothed Asahi's heart in a way that nothing else could in the midst that nightmarish week. That entire media frenzy had just been one more reminder of what society thought of people like him, and people like Daichi and Suga, who he considered a second family. Daichi and Suga, who made Asahi feel safe and loved even when his own brain didn't. Daichi and Suga, who stayed up late at night sometimes, talking about the pros and cons of flying to Taiwan to get married. 

In the face of this sadness, Noya's bold and brash support of Oikawa had given Asahi hope. He'd watched the clip over and over again, on his lunch breaks and when he was in his bed at night, feeling the dread start to overtake him. When Oikawa had shared the clip to his own Twitter, Asahi's entire body had tingled with delight. It comforted him, knowing there were people out there who would stand up for people like him. It somehow especially comforted him to see it from someone like Noya, who by all outward appearances looked like a former member of the yakuza.

And then Noya and Tanaka and Kiyoko had shown up in the park at lunch hour, and Asahi had thought he must be dreaming. It seemed hard to believe that the famous Tanakoya duo was so nice in person, loud and rowdy, but easy to get along with. Tanaka had teased him like they were old friends, and Noya teased back for him before Asahi could flounder for a retort. Asahi scored the winning point and Tanakoya celebrated like it was their victory too. It had been nice, and nice wasn't a feeling Asahi experienced a lot. Not around strangers.

So. All things considered, Asahi was very pleased that they were going to watch Daichi do this interview.

The Tanaka & Noya studio was on the 13th floor of the station building. Kiyoko met them at the elevator to escort them up. "You all look very nice," she said, and Asahi felt a quiet glow of pride. Suga and Daichi _did_ look nice, Suga in his long, flowy cardigan and scoop-necked shirt, and Daich with the navy polo shirt and dress slacks that fit him so well. It was a simple look, but classic. Just like Asahi had been aiming for, it made Daichi look effortlessly attractive and professional. Asahi even allowed himself to take the compliment, because he knew Kiyoko meant him as well, and it didn't make him anxious to have someone who was already married compliment his appearance. 

"You look nice too," Suga enthused, taking in her dark pantsuit and chunky boots. "We always wondered about you when we watched the show."

"Do you watch us often?" Kiyoko seemed to be someone who smiled with her eyes more than her mouth.

"Whenever we can," Daichi said. "You guys really help us unwind."

"We do what we can," she said modestly.

As they stepped into the elevator, Kiyoko explained to them about how the process would go. "Daichi-san, hair and makeup will prep you in the guest dressing room. We would like to get Suga-san and Asahi-san seated right away, so we can continue with our setup. The rest of the studio audience will be seated in about ten minutes." 

"Thank you, Kiyoko-san," Daichi said. 

"Ryuu and Noya are very excited to see you all," she told them, making eye contact with each of them in turn. "They asked that you two be seated with me." Asahi felt his insides warm. Tanakoya was so _nice_. And Kiyoko was never on camera, which meant there was no chance of them being shown either.

"That's wonderful," Suga said graciously. "Thank you for thinking of us."

A lady from hair and makeup ushered Daichi off to his dressing room the moment they stepped off the elevator. "See you guys on set," Daichi said, allowing himself to be led away. Asahi could tell from the way his eyes lingered on Suga a second too long that he would have liked a goodbye kiss, but couldn't with people around. With a quiet pang, Asahi remembered that Daichi didn't like interviews.

Suga of course, picked up on this too. "Get 'em tiger," he said and his voice held just a shade more warmth than strictly necessary. 

Tanaka and Noya were already seated in the studio when Kiyoko led Suga and Asahi in, their own hair and makeup team fussing over them. There was also a tech guy with each of them, adjusting their mics, even as assistants powdered their foreheads.

"Shimizu-san," said a man with a headset. "Five minutes till the audience gets here."

"Thank you." Nodding to Asahi and Suga, she said, "This is where we'll sit," motion to a small booth that stood in the gap between the two sides of the audience seating. Turning to someone else, she said, "Chiyori-chan, can you bring their drinks?"

"You got it Kiyoko-san."

"Asahi-san! Suga-san!" Noya's voice rang out across the studio. Asahi turned to see his bright eyes locked on them. Suga started making his way over, and Asahi followed.

"Good to see you guys," Suga said as Asahi gave a soft, "good evening."

"Hey hey, welcome," Tanaka said with a sharp-toothed smile. He tilted his head with practiced ease as someone dabbed at his jawline. 

"You guys look so classy, what the hell." Noya gave both of them the obvious once over as he spoke. He met Asahi's eyes and smiled so widely that Asahi could feel himself getting flustered. Noya was not, as far as he knew, a married man. 

_At least he's straight_ , Asahi told himself, trying to quell the sudden warmth in his cheeks.

"Well, we knew we had competition," Suga said, breezing past Asahi's internal struggle. "The two of you have your own style team."

"It takes a lot of work to look this good," Noya said with a laugh. Asahi doubted it took any work at all. He was wearing a red blazer and red and black plaid pants, and he looked effortlessly cool. Tanaka was wearing a mustard colored bomber jacket and there were silver chains standing out over his dark shirt. They both looked like they could stand out in any crowd and love it the entire time. 

"Babe, we almost ready to start?" Tanaka asked. 

Kiyoko checked her watch. She was one of those people who wore the dial on the inside of her wrist. "Yes. We should sit down. They're going to be letting the guests in any moment now."

Three drinks were already waiting for them by the time they sat back down. Kiyoko parceled them out. There was a rum and coke for Asahi, his go-to because it was relatively sweet, had minimal alcohol, and he could order it without people looking at him funny. There was a gin and tonic for Kiyoko, and a sidecar for Suga, who said he wanted to get "fancy" tonight.

The three of them clinked their drinks together as the studio began to fill with other audience members. Before Asahi knew it, someone was giving a countdown and the show was starting. 

"What's up everyone, welcome to the number one late night show in the city," Noya said, grinning through his usual introduction. He turned his chair side to side slightly as he spoke, full of boundless energy even now. 

"Noya, did you know that some haters have been pointing out that we're the _only_ late night show in the city?" Tanaka asked. His arms were hooked over the back of his chair and he looked completely unconcerned with this prospect. One finger scratched the side of his nose lazily.

"Do the haters know I'll be standing as tall as them once I'm standing on my wallet?" 

The studio audience laughed. Tanaka reached out to give Noya a fistbump. Their knuckles met and they made little explosion noises. Asahi felt admiration sparkle through him for their easy camaraderie. _So cool_.

The show started with two of them joking about a steady stream of interesting news stories from the week. Their commentary made the audience laugh and Suga cackle behind his hand at their irreverence. Asahi tried to keep his own laughter quiet, content to sip his drink and take in the atmosphere. It felt, in some ways, like being in a much quieter, more organized version of a bar.

Even the commercial breaks were fun. Noya and Tanaka kept right on joking with each other, occasionally calling a question to the audience ("Who would respect us if we started playing golf? Show of hands."), and Asahi and Suga got to talk to Kiyoko. She had a very calming presence. Her voice was gentle and quiet, and her head was always high.

At one point, when someone had called a thirty second countdown, Asahi caught Noya looking at him. _Really_ looking at him, not smiling at something Tanaka said, not looking like he was waiting for a chance to call out another last-minute question. Just head tilted to the side, watching.

Asahi felt his shoulders start to climb a little. _Is there something on my face? Ah, no,_ he reasoned. _Suga or Kiyoko-san would have told me. So what? Maybe... maybe he wants to see if I'm having fun? That makes sense, right? Suga and I are special guests._ Slowly, with this thought in mind, he raised his hands to give Noya a shy thumbs-up. 

Noya's eyes widened. He looked more startled than Asahi had seen him yet, glancing to Tanaka, who was already grinning at him, like the cat that got the cream. He looked back at Asahi and smiled. It seemed almost sheepish.

 _Oh,_ Asahi decided. _Maybe he was just zoning out on my face_. Asahi hated when his eyes seemed to want to zone out and a person happened to be in his line of vision. He never let himself get away with it but Noya was so un-self-conscious that of course he would just let it happen. 

He became aware of Suga looking at him, oddly proud. When Asahi blinked back in confusion, he reached gracefully around Kiyoko and patted his shoulder. Asahi had about ten seconds to wonder at how strange the past minute had been and then Daichi was on.

"Our next guest is a vice principal, guru of city politics, basketball god, and all around cool guy, please welcome Sawamura Daichi!" And at Tanaka's words Daichi opened the graffitied guest door and walked onto the set. 

He settled himself between Noya and Tanaka comfortably. He had asked for one of the dark Irish beers that he liked so much and as he sunk into his seat, Noya reached under the desk and produced a bottle of one from somewhere, twisting the top off in one smooth motion.

"Can you imagine how confused everyone else on city council would be if they saw this?" Tanaka asked, clapping Daichi on the back as he got settled in. "You here with us?"

"Isn't everyone on city council right now like a billion years old?" Noya said. "They have no idea what this is. They might confuse it with their other late night shows."

"Their other _late night_ shows," Tanaka echoed meaningfully, and Asahi felt his body go hot with embarrassment because, were they talking about _sex?_

"You think when you work for the city and your order pay-per-view, you get to write it off as a business expense?" Noya pondered. "Tell us, Daichi-san."

"Yeah tell us Daichi-san," Tanaka grinned. "It's stress relief, right?"

"The three of us would be a very specific flavor," Daichi said thoughtfully, and Noya and Tanaka laughed delightedly. 

"Somebody is discovering their dream scenario right now for sure," Noya agreed, and Asahi couldn't fathom it. He can't fathom joking so easily about pay-per-view and sexual fantasies, but at the same time, it was morbidly fascinating and he couldn't look away. "I think you'd have to get permission from Kiyoko-san first," Noya continued. "If you wanted to get Ryuu in on the action."

"Kiyoko-san, what do you think?" Tanaka called. He always called her "-san" on air. "Would you watch this?" He batted a hand between himself and the other two men at the table.

Asahi watched her, eyes wide (he couldn't _imagine_ fielding that question in front of a studio full of people), but Kiyoko seemed unruffled as always. "No comment," she said.

"So, Daichi-san you're like the big brother of the municipal elections," Tanaka said, moving right along, completely in his element. "You got people looking to you for all these answers. Want to explain to all these people how that happened?" He spread his hand towards the audience.

"Well it started out as just a thing with the students," Daichi said. "A lot of the third years can vote now, and they want to believe their choices can make a difference. But they were overwhelmed and didn't know where to start so we started holding mock town halls at our school to let them try to get their questions answered." The town halls had been an unexpected and runaway success. The high school Daichi worked at had one of the largest auditoriums in the city. Other schools began to bus other students in to attend. Daichi's program would attempt to answer any question, even questions like " _What does the mayor eat for breakfast?_ " He wanted, he'd said, to reward high schoolers for having a desire to get involved. He'd wanted them to see that their vote could make a difference, and municipal elections were the place where they could see that result most directly.

"So tell our audience when the adults started showing up," Tanaka said.

"Some of our third years did a special project with me where we released a guide to what city council members are actually allowed to claim as expenses, and compared it to one of previous expense statements from a former mayor, and some students' parents started reading it, and as it turns out, one of my students has a mother who's a journalist and she asked me if she could do a report on the whole thing." The report had ended up taking an entire page above and below the newspaper fold. Asahi had clipped it out carefully and it was now hanging on their fridge. The guide that Daichi's third years had made had been published on the Tomoeda Tribune website. There was talk of another.

"What were you like in school, Daichi-san?" Noya asked eagerly. 

"Don't tell us, you were like a boy scout leader, right?" Tanaka said knowingly.

"What's wrong with being a scout leader?" Daichi said and his cheeks were a little pink. Out of the corner of his eye, Asahi saw Suga giggle behind his hand. 

"It basically makes you the kid who got the award for perfect attendance," Noya said.

" _What's wrong with getting the award for perfect attendance?_ " Daichi was clearly trying not to raise his voice. His eyes were bright as his two hosts laughed. "Well what were you two like in school?" he asked, smiling through his own defensiveness. 

Tanaka and Noya, it was widely known among anyone who had watched the show, had gone to high school together. They looked at each other now, grinning. "Uh," Noya said.

"Uh," Tanka said. "You ever smoke on the roof?"

Daichi arched an eyebrow. "Can't say that I did." 

"Then you would not have seen us at lunch time." 

Both Daichi's eyebrows went up now.

"Ryuu, look at this posture!" Noya enthused, squeezing Daichi's forearm where he had crossed his arms over his chest. "I feel like I just disappointed my dad."

"We're sorry Dad," Tanaka said, tugging at Daichi's other arm. "Please forgive us for smoking on the roof."

"Stop, stop," Daichi said with a laugh. "You're gonna spill my beer." 

The interview progressed. Tanaka and Noya made Daichi seem like one of their old friends, just like they did with all the people they interviewed. Asahi got to watch Suga out of the corner of his eye, glowing with love and pride, and got to feel that quiet pride in his own chest for his friend being so successful.

And then, of course, things started to go downhill.

"So the art people wanna know," Tanaka said, and an image appeared on the screens that faced the audience. Asahi had come to understand that whatever showed up on those screens would be superimposed on the tv feed later. "How did you get this statue? What kind of money are you making as a high school VP anyway?"

Asahi's lungs had stopped working. His palms were clammy. Suga stretched, fake-casual, reaching around Kiyoko to brush his fingers against Asahi's shoulder in a comforting rhythm. 

The image on screen was of a metal statue of a man, his back was proud and straight as he held up the sky. One of the reporters who had come to Daichi's school to talk to him had taken a picture of his office, and when the picture had been published along with the article, comments had started showing up demanding to know about the statue. Art pieces from this particular artist were becoming a huge talking point, largely because no one knew who made them.

Asahi made them. He didn't do it to get attention or anything! That piece was for Daichi and no one else, just like Suga had a piece that was only for him. Asahi hadn't started making art for it to make news, that had just been a horribly unwanted accident. 

Suga's hand squeezed his shoulder. Asahi began to count his breaths. 

"If you want to talk about how much I make as an educator, does that mean I get to go off on a rant about the state of the school system?" Daichi was saying.

"You have some kind of deep, art world connections?" Tanaka asked, ignoring this. His voice sounded distant over the pounding in Asahi's ears. "What do you have that art collectors don't?"

"What do you have that j-pop stars don't?" Noya said. 

"Maybe God just loves me," Daichi said, because he had a very good poker face when he wanted to. Because he had always been protective of Asahi and despite Asahi's erratic heart right now, there was no way he was going to say " _because the artist is one my best friends_."

"Maybe _you're_ the artist," Tanaka said.

Daichi blinked at him calmly. "Maybe I am."

"Alright Dad, keep your secrets," Noya said. He tapped his hands on the table in a cheerful rhythm. "What a flex though, huh. That you have something every other bigwig here and in Tokyo has been trying to find."

"A conscience?" Daichi suggested. There was laughter from the audience. Asahi felt the adrenaline in his system begin to ebb.

"Alright, Daichi-san," Tanaka said, as the interview wound down. "What would you like your billboard to say?" This was something they did with every guest, asking them to imagine a personal billboard. It was like a chance to say their personal slogan.

Daichi took another sip of his drink, considering. This was another thing Asahi couldn't imagine, being asked to come up with something funny or profound on the spot. 

"'To all my students watching,'" Daichi began. "'This show is rated 18 plus, so if you want to talk to me about it, you better be 18 plus.'"

"Listen to him kids!" Noya said, beginning to clap, encouraging the audience to do the same. "Listen to your vice principal!"

Asahi watched as Noya and Tanaka shook hands with Daichi and clapped him on the back. He watched as the lights came back on and things became less informal. The three men on set waved to the audience, and the show was over.

Afterwards, Asahi found himself in the back hallway with Suga, waiting as Daichi, Tanaka, and Noya debriefed. "Was that good?" Daichi was asking, some of his earnest inner child poking through. At Asahi's shoulder, Suga's eyes were shining with fondness. 

"That was really good!" Noya grinned up at him. There was no doubting his sincerity. 

"Even if you won't tell us where you get your secret art pieces from," Tanaka added with a grin.

"A little mystery deepens the relationship, Tanaka-san," Suga said, taking a smooth step closer. It had the added bonus of putting him between Asahi and everyone else. Asahi tried not to feel like a little child.

"Gotta keep the spark alive," Noya agreed, eyes bright. "But hey, when are we going to get a basketball rematch?" 

"When's the next time you're going to the skate park?" Daichi asked.

"Why don't we get your numbers?" Noya said. "We'll text you when we're gonna be there." He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Ooo, bold," Tanaka said with a grin. "Thought we weren't supposed to have our phones on set."

"Aren't we?" Noya had that unrepentant tone. "Musta forgot."

"Musta done." Tanaka had that expression that he had before, Asahi realized. The one from during commercial break, the cat that got the canary. 

"Daichi-san, you go first." Noya looked up at him expectantly, then fell to tapping away as Daichi rattled off his number. Asahi expected that to be the end of it, but then Noya turned. "Suga-san?" And the process repeated. 

It should have been obvious what was about to happen, but Asahi was tired and a little spacey from his wave of anxiety earlier, and by the time he became aware of Noya saying "Asahi-san?" he realized he must have been repeating himself.

"I'll text you Asahi's number later, Noya-san," Suga said. "He's just an old man and it's past his bedtime."

"I'm not even a year older than you," Asahi complained faintly, but as he reached to rub at the back of his neck, he knew he was grateful. Grateful to have Suga cover for him and a little ashamed to be needing to be covered for. 

But even the ashamed feeling wasn't as bad as it used to be, and as the three of them made their way down the elevator, he and Suga bracketed Daichi, happy in the wake of his interview done well. 

"Did I seem confident?" Daichi asked. Suga had laced their fingers together. Asahi pressed his shoulder into Daichi's companionably.

" _Very_ confident," Suga assured him. "Your students are going to be delighted."

Daichi groaned. "I was trying to ignore the fact that they're going to see this. We talked about _sex_ —"

"Daichi, there's no way a significant number of your students don't already have crushes on you. It's not going to be the first time they've thought of you that way."

"This is a completely inappropriate conversation to have," Daichi said with a half-hearted glare. Suga pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. 

"You looked comfortable up there," Asahi told him as the elevator doors opened, letting them out on the first floor. "You didn't seem nervous at all."

"Yeah. About that..." Daichi looked up at him. "Are you still good around them? Would you want to play basketball with them again?"

"Oh." This... had not been what Asahi had been expecting. He started to consider it, and then realized he didn't need to. "That would be fun."

"Yeah? You sure?" Daichi was watching him carefully, looking for any sign of a lie. But Asahi didn't need to lie. Tanaka and Noya were bold and friendly and they had stood up for Oikawa Tooru and they had made Daichi laugh. It wasn't their fault that Asahi taken his turn as the online art world's flavor-of-the-month.

Asahi cleared his throat. "Absolutely," he said, gazing at both his friends evenly. A small smile pulled at his mouth. "It actually sounds like fun."


	3. Warm Up Stretches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise we will take a break from basketball in the next few chapters. :P

Most of Azumane Asahi's life was pretty boring, but that was by design. Boring was good for him. He was a physiotherapist, and he was lucky enough that the clinic he worked at was directly off a train line. He woke at 7:00 a.m. every morning without an alarm because the sound of Daichi leaving the house was enough to rouse him. He usually worked 40 hours a week, though sometimes his supervisors needed him to pick up extra shifts. He went to the gym after work three days a week, and went straight home the other days. Suga, who was working on a PhD in pharmacology, would be home first if Asahi was working out, and Daichi would often stay late at the school. Whoever was home first would start on dinner. On Sundays they all played basketball at the park and once a month, he and Suga did yoga. He saw a therapist regularly and spent very little time online, because she had pointed out that social media made his anxiety worse. He knew a few people in the local art scene, mostly thanks to his friend Kozume Kenma whom he had met through Daichi. It was a peaceful life. Simple. Regulated.

That Asahi's art had ever made the news was a complete and utter accident. It had mostly only been news where they lived in Tomoeda, though according to Suga a few online entertainment publications had mentioned it as well. 

He had been interested in art his whole life but had sort of fallen away from it when he entered the work force. That was, until his therapist, Urawa, had brought it up. "You need a way to express yourself, Azumane-kun," she had said. "A way to keep all those thoughts from just staying inside your head." 

He had found metal working through Kenma. They didn't talk often, but they both knew what it was like to live with anxiety. They could relate to each other and support each other over it and Asahi was grateful. 

"Your dad has a workshop." Kenma had said. "What about sculpture?"

"I... I don't know." Asahi had tried to consider it. "Isn't that hard to get into? I wouldn't know where to start."

Kenma had blinked slowly, quiet for a long time. Asahi had grown used to his silences. "I could show you," he said finally.

"Would that be okay?"

Kenma nodded, his hair falling around his elegant face. "I haven't done sculpture since university. But we could try."

Asahi's smile had felt bright and relieved and Kenma's eyes had warmed.

Working with his hands grounded him in his body, and the amount of time it took to craft something that represented how he was feeling seemed to actually give him the space to work through it. And after a year or so, he had begun to realize he was proud enough of the things he made that he didn't mind showing them to people.

The pieces at the art show had been collaborations between him and Kenma, pieces that were meant to represent the different ways each of them processed emotions. Asahi trusted Kenma's opinion that if their work was good enough to show, it was good enough to show. The detail work Kenma had contributed was truly remarkable, and regardless of Asahi's opinion of his own prowess, he believed in that. Moreover the show, which was a local showcase anyway, was taking place at the gallery at which Kenma was one of the curators. This put it in something like familiar territory. Kenma was also completely comfortable with keeping it anonymous and had been unfazed by the fact that Asahi didn't want to sell any of it, though even at such shows people sometimes made offers. 

When Asahi and Daichi had arrived to set up on the day of the showing, Kenma had drifted right up to him, something like pride glowing quietly in his wide gold eyes. "The manager said we can put them up front," he had said, directing them over the large plate glass window with a nod. 

"Front and center, huh?" Daichi had said as they had wheeled the pieces over. "Pretty big compliment." 

Kenma had followed them. Asahi watched him take in the three pieces they had made, each featuring a metal approximation of Asahi's own human torso and all the emotions that threatened to burst out of it on a daily basis. One piece had been Kenma's vision, one had been Asahi's, and one the third one they had designed the concept together. (They had also flipped a coin over whose body would be the model. Asahi had lost.)

Eventually, Kenma had looked up at Asahi and his lips had twitched in his version of a smile. Asahi had smiled back, cautiously proud. Cautiously excited to be there. 

And honestly things, probably would have gone fine if that one woman hadn't shown up. 

Asahi had never heard of her before, though Suga had assured him that she was quite famous. Known to her fans as Luna-hime, she was apparently from Tomoeda originally, and had been in town for some sort of homecoming... reunion... tour? Even now Asahi was a little fuzzy on the details. He remembered her coming into the gallery with her entourage in her wake and a film crew in tow. Suga had told him she had been streaming her hometown tour. He'd offered to show Asahi the video but it made him too anxious. 

Luna-hime had been extremely well mannered. Asahi couldn't fault her conduct at all, not that he would want to. One of Asahi and Kenma's pieces (one of _theirs!_ ) in the window had caught her eye, and she had come in and politely asked to speak to whoever was in charge. Everyone in the gallery had stopped what they were doing to stare and Asahi's palms had started to sweat. He didn't know where Suga or Daichi had been at that moment. Back of house, maybe. 

Kenma had come forward from whatever question he had been in the middle of answering. Everyone had strained to hear his quiet voice. 

"I'd like to know more about this piece," she had said, pointing to the one that they had simply entitled _Too Much_. "Who is the artist?" 

Unlike the other two pieces, _Too Much_ had a built-in fountain. Asahi's dad had helped with it. The hands of the statue ripped at the chest and a solution of water and ink ran continuously down the broken skin, made to look like coffee. It was a reminder of all the times Asahi felt shaky and jittery, when anxiety had made him feel like he'd had too much caffeine and it had taken over his veins. The piece had taken him two months to make, even with Kenma helping on the more detailed stuff.

"I'm sorry," Kenma had said in his usual, near-inflectionless voice. "The artist wishes to remain anonymous." He and Luna-hime were probably the same height, but she had been wearing heels. He had to look up slightly to meet her gaze.

"I was interested in purchasing it," she clarified. "Did the artist at least name a price?"

"I apologize," Kenma repeated. "The artist was very clear that none of these pieces are for sale." 

"That's unfortunate," she had murmured. "Would they be interested in hearing an offer at least? I really do love this one." She had cast a gaze over _Too Much_ that was so honestly wistful that Asahi was sure he must have imagined it. Why would something so personal he'd made speak to anyone else? 

"I don't think that they would," Kenma returned, and though Asahi knew that his voice pretty much always sounded that flat, in the moment it made him seem demure and deferential. Every inch a poised gallery curator. No one would have ever known it to look at him then that Kenma lived with anxiety. "My apologies."

It had been then that Kuroo, Kenma's partner, had materialized in the room. "Why, Ms. Luna-hime!" he had said, sliding right up as though the atmosphere of the entire gallery wasn't on absolute pins and needles. "It's such an honor to see you here! Can we offer you anything to drink or eat?" 

"Oh!" Luna-hime took in Kuroo's bright smile, his open posture, his handsome face.

"And your crew as well of course," Kuroo had added.

"That would be lovely, thank you." And the brittle moment had passed.

Luna-hime had been gracious about the whole thing. Brightly turning to the stream cameras she had said, "If any of my fans feel as I do, that this is a very beautiful piece, please leave a kind comment for the artist." 

It had taken everything Asahi had to not cover his face with his hands. He already felt bad that he couldn't have stood next to Kenma, offering him support through the whole exchange but it would have seemed strange, and he knew it. He wasn't a gallery employee. A warm palm on his back almost made him jump out of his skin, but Daichi was there. Daichi was there and Suga was behind him. 

In the end, Luna-hime and her crew had enjoyed the gallery's refreshments, and the idol had even signed a few autographs. She had ended up purchasing another piece from one of Kenma and Kuroo's other acquaintances and, as the night had wrapped up, everyone had called the show a success. Asahi had assumed that would be the end of it.

Asahi had assumed wrong.

"You know," Suga had said a few days later, as he stood in front of the fridge. He was taping up a list of kind comments that Luna-hime's fans had left about his work. "If this had happened outside of j-pop you probably would have been okay." 

Asahi had groaned in response, dropping his head onto the kitchen table. Apparently several of Luna-hime's fans had tried to search for the sculptor, to find any piece that they _would_ sell, as a gift to their beloved idol.

"It's just that everyone's so impressed that not even the j-pop fans can find you. Their detective skills are usually terrifying, you know. That's what's keeping the mystery alive." 

"This is why I don't have Instagram," Asahi mumbled against the wood. 

"Just in case one of the most popular rising stars in Japan tried to find your art?" Suga teased. "How prophetic."

"Suga..."

"Do you have any advice on lottery numbers?"

Asahi groaned again and covered the back of his head with his hands. 

"You know, Kenma said even the mayor's office has contacted him to try to get a piece. Apparently his daughter is a Luna-hime fan. And," Suga's voice took on a kind of mirth that Asahi had learned to be wary of, "did you know, people are asking if the torso was based on anyone in particular..."

The back of his neck was getting red, he could feel it. "I'm leaving the country. I'm becoming a monk." 

"Good idea. The robes will hide your body very nicely." 

"Suga," he tried again. He didn't mind the teasing, but. Well.

Suga's tone softened. "Do you want me to stop?" 

Asahi took stock. "Just... not about my body," he said, raising his head. "I don't want to hear about my body." He didn't want to hear that strangers were speculating about his body. He _knew_ what he looked like but he hated people thinking he wanted attention.

"Okay," Suga said simply. "We won't talk about it." He gave Asahi a reassuring smile, and the day moved on.

Asahi had thought the hype had passed until pictures of Daichi's office had circulated in the news. And Mayor Furukawa's daughter, who it turned out, really was some kind of Luna-hime superfan, had recognized Daichi from the livestream of Kenma's gallery and it had created an up-spike in interest again. A smaller one this time, thankfully. He hoped that even Tanaka and Noya mentioning it wouldn't stir the pot too much. It wasn't their fault. Suga had even pointed out that it was part of their appeal to ask Daichi about things that other people wouldn't. It was just... Well. His anxiety had gotten better managed as he got older. But that didn't mean it wasn't still there. 

It was Sunday again, which meant their day off. Asahi was out running errands when he received a text from Noya. His heart stuttered in surprise.

From: Noya-san

_hey are you guys going to be at the park today?_

_we wanna ball_

From: Asahi

_Hello Noya-san. :)_

_I think so. I haven't heard otherwise._

From: Noya-san

_awesome!!_

_see you there?_

From: Asahi

_See you there. :)_

It was a little strange to think that Nishinoya Yuu, local celebrity, would message _him_ of all people, but life was a little strange sometimes wasn't it? He wondered if Noya and Tanaka made such easy friends with all the people they interviewed. _Probably_ , he decided. Some people had that gift. 

"Noya-san texted," Suga said as Asahi re-entered their apartment, hands full of groceries. "They're going to be at the park today."

"Ah yes, he said." Asahi set the bags down and bent to take off his boots. "I'll go get ready."

"They're easy to be around, aren't they?" Suga commented, as Asahi popped into his room. He hummed his agreement as he began to rifle through the drawers for his workout clothes. 

"I would even feel okay leaving you alone with them." And suddenly Suga was right at his doorway. 

Asahi felt a slight frown forming between his eyebrows. He looked up at Suga from where he was crouched on the floor. "What?" He felt a current of uncertainty.

"Nothing." Suga had a sparkle in his eyes that definitely meant _something_ , so Asahi continued to eye him carefully as he picked through his clothes. "It's just you don't always feel so comfortable around strangers. I would have thought Tanakoya would be at an even bigger disadvantage, being so famous and all."

"Aren't they mostly famous in Tomoeda?" Asahi reasoned. It was one of the things he had been telling himself whenever his anxiety tried to nip at him. Finding an old shirt from a high school blood drive, he pulled the one he was currently wearing off over his head. 

"Have you ever seen the clips they post to Youtube? They actually get a lot of views."

"Oh." Asahi tried not to swallow too visibly. It was old news. People trying to find him was old news.

When he came back up from putting his shirt on, Suga was watching him carefully. "Would you rather not know that?" he asked. 

Asahi took a deep breath. Felt himself steady on the exhale. "It's alright," he said. "I should know it. They are famous."

Suga was still watching him with that expression that meant he was gaging Asahi's response. "We're just playing a game of pickup with them."

Another breath. Another exhale. The art thing wouldn't be a big deal to anyone else, and he knew it. To anyone else, it would be flattering. "Right." He offered Suga a crooked smile. "Did you remember to stretch?"

"It's possible I was hoping you would forget to ask me that."

"Suga!" 

"I know I know," Suga said, sashaying off to his and Daichi's room. "'We're not in college anymore!'" he said, parroting Asahi's own words back to him. There was a soft murmuring sound as he woke Daichi from his nap. By the time the three of them got out of the apartment, Suga had promised to let Asahi help him stretch when they got to the court, and Asahi was pacified.

"Did someone text Noya back?" Daichi asked as they were on their way down the stairs. "Let him know we just left the house."

"I can." Asahi fished his phone out.

From: Asahi

_We're leaving now. We should be there soon. :)_

From: Noya-san

_ballin!_

Asahi smiled to himself. _Ballin'._ What a funny thing to say. 

"What's so funny?" Suga looked over his shoulder. Asahi titled his phone to help him see the screen better. "Ballin'?"

"He's so _cool_ ," Asahi said softly. There was a smile on his face as he tucked his phone away. Then, "what?" because both of his friends had turned to look at him then. Suga just searched his face a little before smiling, but Daichi had a raised eyebrow. " _What?_ " Asahi demanded this time.

"Nothing," Daichi said and it occurred to Asahi that this was the second time 20 minutes that someone had told him "nothing" when they meant _something_. "I just hope you break up with us properly if you decide to get a new best friend."

Asahi pretended to frown at him. "Jealousy isn't becoming, Daichi," he said primly. 

"Don't listen to him," Suga said as he opened the door to their building lobby. "Jealousy is a _very_ good look on you."

Asahi groaned. "We're in public, guys, come on..." But they didn't care, and never had. 

"We're still in our building," Daichi pointed out. Asahi cast his eyes meaningfully at the one other occupant of the lobby, an older lady who was checking her mailbox. Daichi snorted.

Noya and Tanaka and Kiyoko were already at the courts when they arrived. Kiyoko was in the middle of taking off a pair of roller blades, and both Noya and Tanaka were practicing their kickflips. 

"Ha! I got it that time, did you see!" Noya was yelling to Tanaka just as Kiyoko spotted them and waved. 

"Good job, Noya-san," Suga said cheerfully as they came within earshot.

Noya's head whipped around. "Yeah?" A grin lit up his face. "You saw that?" His eyes moved between the three of them before landing on Asahi. Asahi gave his best encouraging smile.

"It was very impressive." He was aware of Suga and Daichi moving on to greet Tanaka and Kiyoko around them.

"Aw, that was nothing," Noya said. "You should see me on the halfpipe." He jerked his head towards the skatepark, full of structures Asahi couldn't name, where several young people were currently making gravity look like it was completely optional. 

"I'd like that," Asahi said honestly. Even if he couldn't help the low thrum of stress when people refused to wear helmets and pads (99% of the people currently there), it also warmed something in him to watch people feeling free in their own bodies. 

Noya, he became aware, was staring at him. His eyes travelled from Asahi's face down to his chest, and before Asahi could even think to ask what the matter was, another grin had split his face. "So what's your type?" Noya said.

Asahi's head snapped down. His shirt from the blood drive looked back up at him, cheekily proclaiming, " _Ask me about my type_."

"Ah!" Asahi's face was red, he could feel it. "This is just—"

"I know, Asahi-san, relax," Noya laughed, his face lighting up in that free and open way. The expression settled out into a simple smile, just looking up into Asahi's face and suddenly the moment was stretching too long. Asahi felt his eyes widening as the air went from something open and friendly to something he didn't understand, just like it had when Noya had stared at him at the tv studio.

"Yo! Noya!" Tanaka called. "We gonna play or what?" 

"Coming!" And Noya turned and bounded onto the court. Asahi followed him, trying not to feel confused.

Nudging the confusion aside, he said, "Suga, are you ready to stretch now?" 

"Hm?" Suga blinked up at him innocently. "Did you say something?" 

Asahi frowned at him. "We're going to stretch. You promised me." 

"You know Asahi, I'm starting to feel singled out." 

"He _is_ singling you out," Daichi said from where he was already stretching his quad, on hand on the chain link fence for balance. "You sit twelve hours a day. Stretch."

Suga's pouting was interrupted by Kiyoko's quiet voice. "Stretching is a good idea. We should too." 

"Oh well, if it's going to be a group exercise," Suga said. "Captain," he flashed a bright smile at Daichi, "please lead our stretches."

Their three new friends fell in line easily beside Suga and Asahi as Daichi led them in the familiar stretch routine from their high school days. He seemed to have retained the ability to count down from thirty in his head, undistracted by the easy chatter of the people around him. He would call "Switch!" at regular intervals and they would lean to stretch the other arm or other leg. He even led them in a few easy laps around the basketball court, which earned them a few curious looks from the people at the other nets. Asahi didn't like getting looked at but it was easier when he was in a group and besides. The static stretches were more effective with a dynamic warm up.

Once their laps were done, Suga plunked himself down on the court, legs spread wide and let Daichi carefully lean his weight on his shoulders. 

"Wow! Suga-san you can get down pretty far," Tanaka observed, suitably impressed as Suga was eventually able to lean both his forearms on the ground for support. 

"What can I say?" Suga said, that familiar wicked gleam in his eye. "I'm flexible." Asahi prayed that no one noticed faint pink at colored Daichi's cheeks at the comment, even as he tried to cover it with a huff. Asahi was distracted from this thought when Suga said, "Asahi can do it too."

"Really?" Tanaka and Noya both turned to him with interest. 

"Ah yes." Slightly flustered at the attention, he settled himself on the ground beside Suga, legs similarly spread. He felt Daichi move behind him, felt the familiar broad hands splay over his shoulders and begin to push gently. He went down even easier than Suga had. 

"Damnnn." Noya joined the two of them on the ground. "Were you just born this way or what?" He tried to lean forward as they had and could barely do anything more than plant his palms in front of him.

Asahi huffed a laugh, a lock of hair slipping over his eyes as he attempted to raise his head. He was taking most of Daichi's weight now. "Actually I do it for my clients."

He knew he'd said something wrong by the choked laugh that came from Daichi, from the way Tanaka's eyebrows shot up, by the sudden glow in Noya's eyes. He felt his face heat. This was the reaction he got when he'd said something suggestive without realizing it. It always made him squirmy and awkward.

Kiyoko at least, seemed placid. "What do you do for a living, Asahi-san?" she asked.

"I'm a physiotherapist," he said and was relieved when Noya and Tanaka's expressions smoothed. Daichi's weight eased off him, letting him up. 

"Asahi won't challenge his clients to do something unless he can do it himself," Suga said. "That's how he got me to do this." And he slunk forward once again, arms stretching forward, chest almost to the ground.

Tanaka whistled. "That is some acrobat shit."

"I usually only do it when I'm working with teenagers," Asahi mumbled. These kinds of stretches were beyond most of his patients, but he had a few high school students who were better off, whose families sent them to keep them loose or from aggravating old injuries. These were the clients who got a kind of homework assignment from him. Them and Suga.

"You hear that, Suga?" Daichi asked. "Asahi called you a teenager."

Suga stuck out his tongue, and gracefully rose to his feet. "Do we want to mix up the teams this time?"

Asahi wound up on a team with Kiyoko and Noya. Everyone agreed they wanted to try to balance the height spectrum. Noya was good at layups, and Asahi watched him call for the ball and practice a few, right-handed and then left-handed. He passed to Kiyoko and she repeated the motions. Right-handed, left-handed. 

"You said you played basketball in high school, Kiyoko-san?" Asahi asked her as she handed the ball off to him.

"Yes, I was a shooting guard."

"Babe!" Tanaka said excitedly, appearing from somewhere behind Asahi. Asahi tried not to startle too visibly. "Show them your trick!"

Kiyoko's eyes moved from her husband to Asahi, then to Daichi and Suga. "They might not be interested, Ryuu." 

Daichi and Suga gathered to join the conversation. "You have a trick?" Suga asked, encouraging.

"Yes, a trick shot." 

"We'd love to see it," Suga assured her.

She nodded once, decisively, and held her hands up to Asahi. He bounced the ball hard enough on the rubber for her to catch on the rebound. "Ryuu, you'll have to sound off for me," she said. Tanaka, who appeared to have expected this, was already making his enthusiastic way to stand under one of the hoops. As he moved, Kiyoko walked to the center line and turned her back squarely to him.

"Honeyyyy!" he called, once he'd planted himself. "Hereeee!"

Kiyoko's muted expression took on a mixture of exasperation and affection. Then she closed her eyes, took one deep breath, and lobbed the ball into the air behind her. 

It arced through the air and went through the net in a perfect _swish_.

Tanaka and Noya exploded. "Waahhhhh!" They ran in contrasting circles around the court before coming to fall on their knees before her. "We're not worthy!" they chanted in unison. "We're not worthy!"

Asahi chuckled to himself, his delight deepening when Kiyoko tossed her silky ponytail with affected arrogance. It was so sweet, in a rambunctious over-the-top way. This was probably the tenth time Tanaka and Noya had seen Kiyoko's trick shot, and they still wanted to drown her in their enthusiasm. 

"That was incredible, Kiyoko-san!" Suga called, clapping excitedly at the same time that Daichi boomed, " _Nice_ , Kiyoko-san." Asahi beamed at her, beyond impressed. High school team or not, that skill would have taken a lot of practice to maintain. 

As they started again, he found himself toe-to-toe with Tanaka at the centerline again. Tanaka was giving him his usual sharp-toothed grimace that Asahi was coming to recognize as his game face. Asahi's own game face was much more neutral. He settled into it as he looked down at his opponent. 

Tanaka was agile and had a vertical jump that he had been able to leverage to beat Asahi at the center line before. Asahi didn't want him to make a habit of this. Suga tossed the ball in the air and Asahi twisted as he jumped, and his broader shoulder caught Tanaka in the chest, not hard, just enough to knock him off balance.

Asahi got the ball. 

He sent it back to Kiyoko who made it to the three point line before Daichi moved to challenge her with it. 

"Kiyoko!" Noya was at her back, ducking past Suga. Kiyoko seemed to be used to his play, passing the ball behind her without hesitation.

Noya ran for the net. Tanaka and Daichi appeared from either side of the court, aiming to pen him in. Noya jumped, twisted in one fluid motion and lobbed the ball at the backboard. It hit the printed square and landed in the net, a perfect backwards layup. 

"Did you see that Asahi-san!" Noya called with boundless excitement. Asahi smiled. 

"Very cool, Noya-san." 

"Damn bro!" Tanaka slapped him on the back and the game continued. 

Near the end, as they were winding down, their play turned more just into them messing around, ribbing each other and laughing. They fell to practicing dunks, something Tanaka seemed to have a knack for, unpracticed though he clearly was.

"Here," Daichi explained, showing him the steps. "You're going to jump here," and he sketched the motion, "and toss it off the backboard, catch it, and put it in." He mimed the motion with the ball in his hands. Tanaka got it on the second try and Asahi and Suga clapped for him.

"I wanna try!" Noya said, returning from where he'd been taking a drink of water on the sidelines. 

"Can you dunk, Noya-san?" Suga asked, and Asahi knew what he was really asking. The vertical jump that Noya, who couldn't be even 5'5", would need to be able to dunk... It would be a little superhuman. 

Noya just showed all his teeth. "I have a secret weapon. Ryuu!"

"You rang?" Tanaka had an easy understanding on his face. 

"It's springboard time."

"Springboard time!" They all watched as Tanaka settled himself on his hands and knees, parallel to the direction of the backboard.

"Gimme the ball, Daichi-san," Noya said confidently, holding up his hands. Daichi tossed it to him, his eyes glowing with amusement and curiosity. 

They all lined up to watch as Noya took a few steps back, judging the distance, and then with three bounding steps forward, pushed one foot off Tanaka's back and slammed the ball into the net. Asahi's eyes went wide.

"Damn!" Daichi called approvingly, but Noya wasn't done.

Instead of letting himself drop back to the court, Noya kept his hands hooked onto the hoop. He began to do pull-ups, the sinew in his forearms sticking out, the grin on his face wide and cocky.

Tanaka, who was back on his feet, stuck both fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistled. There were claps and cheers from their little crew. Asahi felt another wave of admiration for the confidence that seemed to flow from Noya so easily.

Then, as Noya released his grip from the rim, his fingers caught in the netting, startling him off balance. He landed with a cry of pain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. It's MYYY fanfic and IIII get to decide that Kenma and Asahi would be friends.  
> 2\. Idk if j-pop fans are as intense as k-pop fans but I DO know that k-pop fans will literally read a website's coding to try to get information on the bands they like. I imagine anyone they couldn't doxx would be a big deal.  
> 3\. If anyone cares, Kiyoko's basketball position, like I said, is shooting guard. Other examples of famous shooting guards? Michael Jordan.  
> 4\. If you can tell me where the fictional city of Tomoeda is from I will give you a high five. :)


	4. Midfoot Sprain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I'm pretty proud of this one B)  
> 2\. If you're not interested in reading sexual content, just stop reading after
> 
> From: Noya  
>  _I fucking LOVE neko atsume_

Noya felt his ankle bend and buckle. He hit the rubber of the court, felt himself roll onto his back and reach for his leg instinctively, cupping the shin in both hands, unable to contort himself to cover this newly vulnerable spot.

"Yuu!" Ryuu was there, leaning over him, looking concerned. Kiyoko and Daichi appeared behind him. "You okay?"

"I think so..." He forced himself to sit up, hissing a little as he did so. 

"Excuse me please," said a gentle voice. Asahi was nudging his way through the circle they'd created. "Noya-san," he said, getting down on both knees. "Can I take a look?"

Noya nodded. The sweat on his forehead was starting to cool. "We might be past the '-san' thing at this point though," he said, tilting his head back against the sensation of Asahi beginning to undo his shoe laces. "If this is gonna happen." 

"Just let it happen sweetheart," Ryuu said with a wicked grin, and Noya tilted his head back to glare at him better.

"Is it bad?" Kiyoko asked.

Noya shook his head, though he could feel the adrenaline starting to recede and knew it was going to get bad soon. "I've had it worse." He threw on a cocky grin for good measure though it may have turned into a grimace as Asahi eased off his shoe.

"You once broke both your arms at the same time," Ryuu told him, sobering slightly. "That sentence means nothing."

Noya gritted his teeth around a smile as he tried to move his ankle. "Don't call me _out_ —" The sentence turned into a sharp intake of breath because Asahi was touching him.

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Asahi asked, carefully running his broad palm down the back of Noya's calf. Noya shook his head, not trusting his words. Asahi moved onto rolling down Noya's sock and Noya tried to focus on something other than how gentle those big hands were. "How about this?"

"A little," he breathed. He watched Asahi cradle his heel, brushing at Noya's skin with the thumb of his other hand, looking for swelling. Goosebumps were breaking out in his wake.

 _I'm bi,_ Noya thought dizzily. _I'm bi, I'm bi, I'm bi._

"What about this?" Very gently, Asahi curled this other hand around the top of Noya's foot. "Can you take this?" 

Noya ignored the way his body was trying to jerk against the touch. "Yeah," he said. If it was a little thin, who was gonna notice? 

"Where does it hurt the most?" 

"Here." Noya reached out to cup the junction of his ankle and the top of his foot. "In here."

"Inside? Do you mean under the skin?" Asahi's gentle touch replaced Noya's own on his ankle. Noya let his hand drop and nodded, feeling a pinch of pain between his eyebrows. 

"Y-yeah."

"Hmm." Noya got to watch those thick eyelashes bat slowly as Asahi blinked down at his foot. Slowly his eyes came up to Noya's again. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you're done with basketball today. You're going to need to stay off it for a while. Can I help you up?" 

_"Can" you—_ "Uh, okay," Noya said intelligently, and then Asahi was crouching beside him, slinging Noya's arm over his shoulders. 

"Up we go." And with Asahi's help, Noya limped over to the bench. Everyone went with them.

"Hey, Asahi-san, anything we can do?" Ryuu asked, watching Noya carefully. They'd seen each other injured enough times at this point that Noya was pretty sure Ryuu was trying to gage if he was in more pain than he was showing. Fortunately, today at least, the answer was "no." Noya flashed him a wide grin.

"Don't mind, Ryuu."

"Noya-san needs ice," Asahi said, turning to Ryuu as though Noya hadn't spoken. "Do you think you could run to the convenience store and bring him some?" 

"You got it." Ryuu threw a casual salute, before turning to Kiyoko. "Is my wallet in your purse?"

"Aw, come on," Noya protested. "Let me pay for it."

"What's that, I can't hear you, I'm too far awayyy!" And Ryuu was already bounding off the court, Kiyoko in his wake.

Daichi and Suga watched them go, but Asahi was digging something out of his gym bag. He started to unroll it and Noya realized it was a tensor bandage. 

"I think you have a midfoot sprain—" Asahi began. Noya interrupted him.

"Do you just _carry_ this stuff with you?"

"I— uh—" Asahi stammered, seeming startled by the question.

Noya gave him a shit-eating grin. "Is that a 'yes?'"

"Luck favors the prepared," Asahi told him sternly, but he dropped his eyes and his cheeks seemed a little pinker than they had before. It was so fetching Noya could hardly stand it.

 _Asahi,_ Noya contemplated, _you are probably one hell of a physiotherapist._

"So long will I have to be off it?" he asked, instead of asking some other, wildly inappropriate question like _hey are all your patients in love with you because they should be._

"If it's a more mild sprain, no more than a week," Asahi said. "As long as you rest up and keep it elevated." His head was bowed over his work and Noya got to watch him openly. 

"You should supervise my recovery period," he said, flashing all his teeth when Asahi looked back up at him. He might have batted his eyes a few times. Who could say, really. "Make sure I'm doing it right. You know." In the corner of his eye, he was aware of Daichi and Suga looking way too knowing.

Asahi blinked. "I could give you the name of my clinic, if you'd like."

 _...Huh_. 

Noya regarded him curiously. Took in the open expression on Asahi's face. Asahi, it seemed, genuinely didn't register that Noya was flirting. 

"I probably shouldn't cheat on my doc," Noya relented with a dramatic sigh, slinging his arms over the back of the bench. 

"Maybe your doc would allow a little side action," Daichi said, settling down on the end of the bench. "What do you think about that, Asahi?"

"Huh?" Asahi's voice took on a different note of confusion, slightly flustered. He frowned at Daich's shit-eating grin and continued. "The thing Noya-san needs the most is rest."

"Hey I told you," Noya said, nudging him with his good foot. "No more '-san.'"

Asahi's eyes flickered to him, and then back to Daichi. "Noya needs rest," he repeated firmly.

"Rest isn't really my strong point," Noya said, scooting over a little as Suga joined Daichi on the bench. "I go stir crazy sitting still." Then, "What?" because now, Asahi was frowning at _him._

"You really do need to rest," he said. His voice was getting serious in a way Noya hadn't heard yet. "It doesn't seem bad but you could make it worse. So, please. Be careful." His expression smoothed slowly, softened by sincerity and concern. Noya was starting to entertain the theory that Azumane Asahi was a literal angel.

"Aw," Noya said, ducking his head, suddenly feeling shy. Which. Who _was_ he? He didn't do _shy_. "Don't worry about it, Asahi-san. I'll be good."

"Really?" 

He offered a smile. "Yeah, really. I been meaning to finish playing Borderlands anyway."

Asahi leaned back on his haunches, satisfied. "Okay." 

"You know," Noya began. His first attempt at flirting hadn't really worked, but he figured he'd give it just one more go. "We should make a deal. If I can rest up and get better in a week, you and me go out for dinner to celebrate. My treat." 

It was forward, probably way too forward for a guy he'd met three times, but he'd never gotten anywhere by pretending to be anything else. Noya caught Daichi and Suga's expressions again, out of the corner of his eye. Daichi was grinning. Suga looked like the holidays had come early. 

Asahi just looked startled. "Oh! Um." His large hand reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "Is it really gonna be so hard to sit still....?" But there was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. Nervous, but maybe happy too. Noya felt a twinge of hope.

" _So hard_." He groaned dramatically, tossing his forearm across his forehead, falling back against the bench. "Didn't you hear Ryuu say about how I once broke both arms at the same time?"

"Noya!" Asahi sputtered. Daichi and Suga were laughing. Noya laughed too.

"So whaddya say?" He leaned forward, hands gripping the metal bench between his legs. With Asahi kneeling and him sitting, he was actually looking down at him. "We have a deal?"

Asahi looked at him, wide-eyed. Then, slowly his eyes slid to Daichi and Suga. Whatever he saw there must have been good, because his eyes found Noya's again and he nodded. His voice, when it came, was a little shy. "Yes, it's a deal."

\- -

From: Suga  
 _Hello Noya!_

From: Noya  
 _hey!  
_ _wassup?_

From: Suga  
 _This is a little tactless of me but  
_ _you asked Asahi on a date right?  
_ _That little deal of yours was a date_

From: Noya  
 _I mean, yeah?  
_ _wasn't really trying to hide it_

From: Suga  
 _I could see that  
_ _but Asahi definitely doesn't think it's a date_

From: Noya  
 _oh  
_ _lol  
_ _he's a little dense huh  
_ _should I text him and clear it up_

From: Suga  
 _Well, about that  
_ _Asahi doesn't see himself as someone a guy would ask out_

From: Noya  
 _what  
_ _seriously???  
_ _has he looked in the mirror ever_

Noya was frowning. This was... not what he had been expecting. Was this some kind of getting let down easy? Did Suga mean Asahi didn't _want_ guys to ask him out?

From: Suga  
 _We have told him this many times  
_ _He's just  
_ _Nervous around new people and doesn't date people people he doesn't already feel comfortable with  
_ _He likes you more than pretty much any new person I've ever seen but the not-dating-strangers is something he takes seriously  
_ _So would you consider just letting this be two friends getting to know each other better?  
_ _I understand of course, that you're not obligated to listen to me  
_ _But Asahi's been my best friend since high school  
_ _I care about him_

Noya felt his lungs expand, feeling a little bittersweet. Suga was looking out for his bestie, which God knew Noya could relate to. And besides. This wasn't _no_ , right? It was just... not yet.

From: Noya  
 _i can respect that  
_ _listen I should probably get something straight: is asahi  
_ _lol see what I did there_

From: Suga-san  
 _I see what you did there (￢‿￢ )  
_ _No he isn't straight  
_ _And since we're on the topic, you might as well know that Daichi and I have been together for 10 years  
_ _So you're in good company_

From: Noya  
 _Damn son  
_ _Get that love and commitment  
_ _...comittment?  
_ _committmentttt_

From: Suga-san  
 _lol_

From: Noya  
 _Okay, be Asahi's friend first, got it  
_ _Anything else?_

From: Suga-san  
 _That was all!  
_ _Thank you for being understanding, Noya  
_ _You're a good one  
(_ _⌒‿⌒)_

From: Noya  
 _hey, you too_

\- -

Somehow, Noya was able to mostly stay off his feet, and by the end of the week, his doctor had cleared him. He had to answer questions about it while they were filming, and Ryuu got to mock him for it on the air. ("Don't you love _almost_ looking cool at basketball?") However, a lot of their viewers sent him get-well wishes and that was pretty nice.

He passed the time playing video games and bugging his friends. He got along great with Ryuu's sister Saeko, and she called him every night for a week to dish out the hot goss.

"So you know how Kiyoko-chan's cousins are in town, right?" Saeko was saying on this particular occasion. Noya was lying on his couch with his leg elevated, the nightly news playing lowly in the background.

"Yeah, you went shopping with them right?" He glanced to the side, reaching for his bottle of beer on the coffee table. Ryuu had bought him a six-pack of fucking _Asahi_ beer because Ryuu was a little shit. 

_I'm still gonna drink it though. Obviously._

"Yeah, and let me tell you, I love spring clearance sales. I bought an espresso maker. Get me to make you a latte sometime. I'm gonna learn how to do ferns and hearts and shit."

"That is," Noya said with profound sincerity, "the coolest thing I've ever heard." 

"Right? Anyway one of Kiyoko's cousins had the nerve to be like 'it's on sale because it's hot pink,' as if hot pink isn't the _best_ color—"

"Aside from orange—"

"—aside from orange. Oh, okay right, so this cousin of hers, Hana-san? Piece of work, let me tell you."

"Tell me."

"You know how Ryuu's straight but he's not like, weird about it?"

Noya made a grimace of acknowledgement around his beer bottle that Saeko obviously couldn't see. "Man of the people."

"Fucking A. Anyway, Hana-san is _not_ one of those straights. So she starts in on Kiyoko about how if she'd held out she could have had someone better looking—"

"What the fuck!" Noya sat upright on the couch, wincing a little as he jostled his foot. "Ryuu's hot as shit. Your whole family's hot as shit."

"Right? Also how tacky do you have to _be_ to tell someone you think their husband is ugly?"

"Tacky as fuck. The tackiest."

"Exactly little bro. And she said it in front of _me_ , like I wasn't gonna beat her ass in the middle of this overpriced department store—"

Noya grinned. Tanaka Saeko, like her brother, was a national treasure. 

"—but then Kiyoko steps in and she's like 'I understand why you personally wouldn't know the benefits of a man with a bike-seat jawline,' which—"

"She did _not_ ," Noya said, delighted. 

"She _did_." Saeko sounded just as delighted. "Which apparently was a total kill-shot because Hana-san's bitch-ass husband refuses to eat pussy—"

"No!" Noya was laughing now. "No way!"

" _Refuses_ , Yuu. Like, apparently he and her once fought about it at a family reunion." 

"Holy shit." 

"Say what you will about us Tanakas, we eat the hell out of the pussy." 

" _Yeah_ we do." Noya had been referring to himself in the same breath as the Tanaka family since high school. Everyone agreed he'd been adopted. "But also what's _with_ that? You can't tell me she has to go down on him but he won't go down on her?"

"Yuu. That's _exactly_ what I'm saying."

"The fucking worst."

"The _wooorst_."

They'd spent an hour that night trying to come up with a way to convince the station execs to let him and Ryuu discuss the benefits of eating pussy on the air. They were not entirely successful.

"We can't get Kiyoko in trouble," Noya said. He was on his third beer. "That's the problem. If her family knows we're talking about it because she and her cousins were fighting about it, she's gonna be in deep shit."

"Life is so unfair," Saeko sighed.

In the end, they'd reluctantly let it go. Noya settled for texting Ryuu, _hey did you hear Kiyoko was bragging to her cousins about how much pussy you eat_ , because it was possible Kiyoko was too modest to tell him, and Saeko was too related to him to tell him, and Ryuu deserved to feel like the absolute king he was. 

He'd also been texting Asahi as the week passed. At first it was under the pretense of questions like "how long do I ice the ankle for" but eventually the conversation turned more casual.

From: Noya  
 _honestly borderlands is so underrated_

From: Asahi  
 _I thought you said it was popular?_

From: Noya  
 _doesn't matter  
_ _can't be rated highly enough_

From: Asahi  
 _Ah, just like your show then. :)_

Noya had covered his mouth with the back of his hand. _So. Fucking. Cute_.

From: Noya  
 _ur a gentleman and a scholar azumane  
_ _exactly like our show_

From: Asahi  
 _:)  
_ _What is your favorite game?_

From: Noya  
 _hm  
_ _dunno i'd have to think about it  
_ _hbu_

From: Asahi  
 _Ah... I don't know much about video games, actually?_

From: Noya  
 _really?  
_ _what was the last game you played_

From: Asahi  
 _...  
_ _Neko Atsume?_

Noya was grinning at his phone like an idiot.

From: Noya  
 _I fucking LOVE neko atsume_

And Noya thought about Asahi a lot. Obviously. He'd had his first jack-off thinking about Asahi sometime in the week that he'd first seen the guy, when Asahi was just a nameless person with a shy, arresting smile. Now, Noya knew what his voice sounded like when he was laughing or worried or determined. He knew what Asahi's hands felt like when he was touching him, even innocently.

Noya was lying in his bed and he was having trouble getting to sleep. The pain in his foot had been easing as the week progressed but the need to favor it meant he couldn't sleep in the position he normally did. And that was making it hard to relax.

Fortunately, he knew something to help with that. 

Usually when he thought about hot people he barely knew, he let his imagination get nasty. It would all be enthusiastically consensual, sure, but it would also be purely about the physical. When it was all in his head there were no repercussions to being rough, to not using condoms, to a little oral up against a plate-glass window in broad daylight. But if he was picturing Asahi, well, it was different. There was a level of tenderness there that was undeniably part of the appeal. 

In his mind, Asahi knelt before him again, running his hand reverently up the back of Noya's calf. Lifting Noya's foot, he kissed the inside of his ankle and Noya's breath caught in real life. 

His imagination had him with hands cuffed behind the back of the chair, naked as the day he was born. He was already panting as Asahi kissed his way up the inside of his thighs. He'd been with one or two other dudes who had beards and knew he liked a little beard burn. The rough chafe would be incredibly hot in contrast with the gentleness of Asahi's mouth.

Asahi would take his time, would kiss the creases between Noya's thighs and his hips, would push his legs further apart and nuzzle between them, would be so slow and sweet it would make Noya lose his _mind._

 _"Asahi-san,"_ he imagined himself saying. _"Asahi-san, come_ on _—"_ He gasped as he pressed hard with his thumb, imagining it as a different kind of pressure, more hot and wet as Asahi finally took him into his mouth. 

There was no way Asahi would be anything other than methodical and earnest, covering him with spit, licking long, slow lines up him, kissing his tip, making Noya whine over and over again. 

He made the mistake of trying to picture how Asahi would look and the image was almost lethal. Asahi, he was sure, would be one of those people who somehow managed to look cute while giving head. 

Noya's hand stilled, giving himself a chance to recover.

 _"Asa— Asahi-san,"_ he ground out in his imagination. " _If you don't stop now, I'm gonna come."_

Asahi leaned back on his heels and wiped a little spit off his mouth with the back of his hand. _"Is that a problem?"_ His eyes were shining. 

_"I mean, I'd rather you get in me, so yeah. Kinda."_

Asahi tilted his head to the side, only pretending to be confused. _"But what does that have to do with_ you _finishing?"_

 _"Do you want me to be too sensitive to ride you?"_ But Noya was already picturing it, picturing the feeling of it being just this side of too much. He kind of wanted that, now that he was thinking about it.

 _"Don't push yourself."_ Asahi kissed the crease of his thigh once more. _"If you can't take it, I won't make you."_

Now that the idea was in his head, he couldn't wait to play it out picturing himself overstimulated, climbing to his feet with shaking legs.  _ "Big guy,”  _ he said as he pushed Asahi down for his turn in the chair.  _ “If you think this is me pushing myself, I am gonna blow your fucking mind.” _

In real life, Noya's loud, stuttering breath echoed around his quiet room. 

His bound hands conveniently appeared in front of his body (it was a skill Noya actually had in real life, getting cuffed hands from behind him to in front of him), and as he straddled Asahi's waist, Noya looped his arms around Asahi's neck. 

Asahi's strong hands found Noya's hips, gently but unrelentingly guiding Noya onto him.  _ "Shhh, shhh,"  _ he'd whisper when Noya would whimper. And Noya would cry out when Asahi trust up into him, hard.

Noya came with a sigh, arching off his bed and catching himself in his hand. Collapsing back onto the mattress, he reveled in the warm, boneless feeling. He spent a moment to imagine kissing Asahi in post-coital bliss before reaching to his night stand with his unsoiled hand. He fished out the pack of wet wipes he kept in there and cleaned himself up. 

As he finally felt himself drifting off, his last conscious thought was accompanied with a smile; _I am_ really _looking forward to Friday_. 


	5. Newspapers and Restaurants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise the basketball talk is brief in this one. :P

The East Asia basketball finals were happening. Noya happened to know a sports bar that was gonna show the game, and had really good barbecue besides. He was gonna meet Asahi at the restaurant and even though it was a not-date, he was still so nervous that it was kinda ridiculous.

"I still wanna look _hot!_ " he complained to where his phone was propped on the bedside table. Ryuu and Kiyoko were on the call. 

"You always look hot, sugarplum," Ryuu called from somewhere over Kiyoko's shoulder. He was here for moral support more than any kind of actual expertise. 

"Thanks lovebug." He looked at the pile of clothes he had strewn over his bed in a kind of huff. He wasn't insecure about his appearance, loved himself enough to see himself as a hot piece of ass, but well. Shit. He had a _really_ big crush. And it had developed really fast. 

"Black jeans. The nice ones." Kiyoko's voice injected some clarity into his brain. "Put your wallet on the silver chain." She leaned closer to the screen, trying to see his disaster of a bed better. "Can you bring me closer?"

"Sure." Noya picked up his phone and brought it to bed. 

"Is that one shirt clean? With the vertical stripes?" 

"I think so?" Noya abandoned his bed and moved to the closet. "The red and black?"

"Yeah." 

Noya's fingers landed on the silky fabric in question and pulled it out. He'd always cared about self-expression but his range had really expanded once he'd started appearing on camera for a living. Turning, he held the hanger up for Kiyoko's inspection.

"Good," she decided. "Go get changed. You don't want to be late." 

Checking the time, he cursed softly. She was right, he had to get moving. "Kiyoko," he told her fervently. "You're the _best._ "

She smiled softly. "Good luck."

As he boarded the train, he tried to cast his mind back. It had been a few years since he'd been this excited about a date ( _not-date_ , his brain reminded him sternly). He'd _been_ on dates recently, but he'd always approached them with a friendly curiosity. Open to the experience, but with no real expectations. And if he ever just needed to get laid, there were plenty of apps for that these days. He'd been an adult for long enough to know that if the two people involved were on different pages, like he and Asahi apparently were, sometimes it was just better to part ways. But goddamnit, he was still so eager to see Asahi that he was willing to just follow wherever this went.

As he exited the train station, he was shocked to catch sight of a familiar face he did _not_ want to see. He ducked into a side alley. 

The man's name was Hi... Hi-something, but Noya mostly remembered him as That Reporter for Page-Fucking-Six, the gossip columns. _Tanaka & Noya _ had appeared there a few times. Sometimes it was in a positive way, like when Ryuu and Kiyoko got married, but more recently it had been when Noya got banned on Twitter for sticking up for Oikawa Tooru, and that had been annoying. The comments section on the Tomoeda Tribune website alone had made him pissed enough to go out and run wind sprints. 

Gossip reporters were nothing Noya couldn't handle but also they weren't something he wanted to deal with when he was trying to have a good night. He set off at a faster pace.

The bar was only a short distance from the station and Noya felt his insides lift when a much more appealing familiar figure came into view.

"Asahi-san!" Even from a distance, it was easy to recognize that tall stature and man-bun, standing at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the plaza.

Asahi turned and his face broke into a shy smile. "Ah, Noya, hi." 

"You always early for stuff?" Noya was proud of himself for keeping his eyes on Asahi's face rather than checking out those tight dress pants like he wanted to. _You'll get your chance,_ he told himself. 

"Sorry. Is that a problem?" Asahi's hand scrubbed the back of his neck.

"Nah." Noya offered a bright smile. "Just makes me look bad, yannow?"

"Sorry." Asahi said again. His smile was decidedly apologetic.

Noya felt himself squinting up at his not-date and then forced his expression to smooth. "Sorry nothing. You ready to go in?" 

"Yes." Asahi let Noya fall into step ahead of him, leading him as they started up the stairs.

"Noya!" 

_Aw fuck._

Noya could already feel his most unwelcoming expression sliding into place as he turned. "Hikoki." Because _that_ was Page Six Dude's name. And he was here.

"Can I get a comment, Noya?" Hikoki had a reputation for being tenacious, Noya would give him that. He even understood it, somewhere under his annoyance, because media was not an easy industry to be in. "Does Tanakoya support Mayor Furukawa?"

"What?" Noya narrowed his eyes. Gossip was one thing. Politics was another.

"You had that vice-principal on to talk about municipal affairs right? So can we get a political stance from your show?" 

Noya continued to frown, unblinking. It was an expression Ryuu had told him was unnerving. He waited until Hikoki had the grace to look sheepish before speaking. "That's public relations, dude. You gotta call the studio office."

"Oh come on! Just one comment!" 

"Must be a slow day in the gossip department." And Noya was turning away now, climbing the stairs, reminding himself that he was an adult, and adults didn't get into pissing matches with reporters. Especially not in front of their not-dates.

There was the sound of rapid footsteps behind him, Hikoki starting to climb after them, and Noya barely had time to close his eyes against his temper before abrupt silence fell. Noya turned. 

Asahi had stepped directly into Hikoki's path. Noya couldn't see his face, he could see how startled the reporter looked. Hikoki was a tall guy, but Asahi was probably taller to begin with, broader for sure, and standing one step above him.

"Nishinoya isn't answering questions tonight," came Asahi's voice in an impeccably formal tone. 

The bottom dropped out of Noya's stomach.

The silence stretched. Hikoki's eyes went briefly, satisfyingly wide, and then he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "Alright, alright. Can't blame a guy for trying to do his job." Looking over Asahi's shoulder he said, "See you around, Noya!"

"I bet I will." 

They watched Hikoki until he was disappearing down the other side of the street and then Asahi was turning to Noya.

"Are you okay?" he asked, protective stance melting into something soft.

 _Hot damn,_ Noya thought, remembering the tall, unbending line of Asahi's back. _Fold me in half_ , Noya thought. "You use to do security by any chance?" was what Noya said.

"Ah." Asahi looked flustered. "I worked as a bouncer at my cousin's bar for a while? When I was finishing my degree." 

"Dude." Noya was practically bouncing as they continued up the stairs. "You were so. _Cool!_ What the fuck! I thought I was gonna have to argue with that guy for another twenty minutes _at_ _least_! And you just got him to leave!" 

"Ah," Asahi said again. "I'm really glad he left. I don't like manhandling anyone..."

 _Manhandle me,_ Noya valiantly didn't say. _Please manhandle me, Asahi._ Instead he reached for the door of the bar and pulled it open. "After you." 

"Thank you." Asahi smiled at him and stepped inside. Noya wondered if it was a trick of the light, or if there was a thin sheen of sweat starting to form at Asahi's hairline.

"Hey, what was with you full-naming me, anyway?" Noya came to stand beside him, giving his arm a nudge as they waited for the maître d' to be ready for them. "I didn't know you even knew my family name."

"Oh. I read it, in the newspaper." Asahi glanced at him and then away. "Is that weird?"

"Ohhh. Nah, s'not weird." Newpapers did usually put his whole name. _Nishinoya "Noya" Yuu_ , they always said. 

Ah, the maitre d' was looking at them. Noya stepped forward. "Nishinoya," he said. Newspapers and restaurants, apparently.

"Right this way."

"Okay, _so_ ," Noya said as they got seated in their booth. He had been about to explain about how his genius planning left them just enough time to order before the game started but then Asahi took off his jacket and he lost his train of thought. 

" _Damn_."

"What?" Asahi looked startled, checking himself anxiously as Noya took in his white, flowy-sleeved, open-necked, dress-shirt situation. The Literal Angel theory was gaining traction.

"You look like a sexy violin player."

" _What?_ " Uh oh, Asahi looked way too embarrassed. Fuck. _Not-date, right_.

"Scratch that." Noya looked him over and tried again. "You look like a vampire who isn't evil?" 

"I— Um."

"It's a compliment," Noya hastened to assure him. "I'm saying you look good."

"Oh." Asahi's shoulders eased, maybe relieved to have it spoken plainly. "Thank you. You look nice too."

"Hey, thanks." Noya reached for the menu in a kind of subtle retreat. Every warning he'd ever been given about how he could come on too strong was ringing in his head. 

_Calm down,_ he told himself. _Breathe. Reel it in._

He became aware of Asahi in his peripheral, fidgeting slightly as he examined his own menu. Noya was determined to put him back at ease. "So who're you rooting for tonight?" he asked once they had ordered.

"Oh." Asahi's eyes glanced at the tv screens over Noya's shoulder. "Taipei," he decided.

"Hey, me too." Noya offered him a smile.

"Is it the obvious choice? Everyone likes the underdog..."

"Well sure." Noya twisted in his seat to look back at the screen. The pregame show was still going. "But Korea's won way too much already. Come on, they've had what, three or four titles?"

"Yes, exactly." 

The conversation fell easily into basketball, into other sports, and eventually to the realization that Asahi knew about Noya's Twitter drama.

"Probably not gonna be the last time it happens, honestly," Noya said, taking an obnoxious slurp of his soda. "Technically we're not supposed to beef with people in public, but the studio knew what they were signing up for right? We're rowdy guys."

"Did you get in trouble for it?" Asahi was drinking barley tea, like an old man.

"Kinda? They told me not to make a habit of it, but hey. I don't like bullies." Something else occurred to Noya. "Oh, wanna see something?" He reached for his phone. "So someone told Oikawa we'd stuck up for him and look what he sent us as a thank you."

Asahi leaned towards the screen as he held it out. His eyebrows rose slowly. "An autograph?"

"Right? We laughed _so hard_ when we got it. Like dude, how arrogant do you have to _be?_ " Noya turned his phone back towards himself and grinned almost fondly at the signed player card looking back up at him. 

_To Noya and Tanaka,_ it had read. _My dearest fans._

"I mean," he added glancing back at Asahi. "I guess it'd be kinda hypocritical of me to get down on anyone for a little self-love but come _on._ "

"What did you do?" The corners of Asahi's mouth were twitching upwards in gentle amusement.

"Sent him one back." Noya brought up the picture and held it out to Asahi again. Asahi's eyes moved over the screen. Then he covered his mouth and snorted.

 _To Oikawa Tooru,_ Noya's autograph read. _Our BIGGEST fan._

 _To Oikawa Tooru,_ Ryuu's said. _Our most DEVOTED fan._

"Will you ever interview him?" Asahi asked as Noya tucked his phone away.

Noya shrugged. "Probably not. We'll go to bat for the guy 'cause we hate bigots, but honestly I don't think we'd get along that well."

"Really?"

"Is that hard to believe?" Noya looked at him curiously.

"Well..." Asahi hesitated. "A little? You and Tanaka look like you get along with everyone."

Noya grinned. "We do usually. But no one gets along with _everyone._ "

"I guess that's true..."

"Oh look," Noya said as movement throughout the rest of the bar caught his attention. "The game's starting."

After his initial aggression, he'd decided to forego his sneaky plan to demand that he and Asahi sit on the same side of the booth together to watch the game. Instead, as their food arrived, he tried to content himself with sitting sideways, one leg up on the seat, turned towards the tvs as comfortably as possible. Which was honestly not very comfortable, but he could deal. It wasn't until Asahi said "Noya?" halfway into the first period, that he considered changing his mind.

"Hm?" Noya turned his head. He could already feel a crick forming in his neck. 

"Would... would you like to sit on this side? So you can see the screen better?"

Noya figured obtuseness was the better part of valor. "Like switching? But then you'd be the one in this position, Asahi-san." _Word choice,_ his brain chastised him.

"Ah, no, that..." Asahi cleared his throat. "Would you like to sit next to me?"

"Why didn't you say so!" Slipping out of his side of the booth he moved to seat himself in the spot Asahi had already vacated for him. Reaching across the table, Asahi pulled Noya's plate of ribs over for him. "Thanks." Noya just managed to keep his tone casual. 

Asahi smelled good. Whether it was cologne or after-shave or something, Noya just hoped his own body wash was working for Asahi as much as this woody-vanilla smell was working for him. 

What Asahi had said was true; everyone liked the underdog. Most of the bar was rooting for Taipei, and every time they scored, the place would erupt with cheers. Noya for his own part, could pump his fists and whoop with the best of them. Asahi didn't seem like the type to do anything more than smile and nod at Noya when Noya looked to him, but Noya couldn't say he was too surprised about that.

Except.

_Except..._

Something was tickling Noya's brain. He knew Asahi was shy, but watching him in his peripheral, he was beginning to wonder if there was something more going on. The better Taipei did, the louder the bar became, and the more subdued Asahi got. He still offered Noya smiles whenever Noya looked at him fully, but his food remained half-eaten, and that sheen of sweat Noya had thought he had imagined as they entered the bar was _definitely_ back now. 

Then Taipei's shooting guard scored a three-point shot, nudging them just ahead at the end of the second period and the bar _exploded._ People were cheering and some kind of celebratory fanfare started playing over the PA system. It was loud. It had airhorns.

Asahi stood up abruptly.

"Please excuse me," he said. Noya slid wordlessly out of his seat and let Asahi by him. But, instead of making for the bathroom like Noya thought he might, Asahi walked straight out the front door.

 _Shit._

Asahi hadn't taken his jacket with him, but honestly it hadn't seemed like he'd been thinking. Noya grabbed it before pulling his own wallet out of his pocket. Leaving way too much money on the table, Noya ran out of the bar after him.

He found Asahi at the corner of the building, his back against the brick, eyes closed, breathing deeply.

"Asahi-san!"

Asahi cracked one eye open as Noya came running up to him but didn't speak. 

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Is there something I can do?"

"Noya..." Asahi took a shuddering breath. One hand came up to pinch the bridge of his nose, but rather than irritated, he looked slightly pained. "I can't... Please, I can't talk right now."

"Oh." Noya took a step back, felt a hand fly up to grip his hair. "Sorry." _Shit. Too intense again._ He cast about, trying to get his bearings. The night was cool but there were still cars going by. Other bar-hoppers were walking along the streets, and the smell of cigarettes was everywhere. Only a slight breeze coming off the river provided some relief.

 _Hm._ "Wanna go somewhere quieter?" 

Asahi cracked one eye and looked down at him. Slowly, the other eye opened and Noya saw how miserable he was when he nodded. _Help me,_ his expression seemed to say. _Please help me._

Noya desperately wanted to grab his wrist and lead him, but shoved his hand in his back pocket against the impulse. His other hand focused on holding Asahi's jacket. He led Asahi half a block down the street to a crosswalk, and then up the street another half block to where stairs led from the sidewalk down to the river walkway. Asahi followed him quietly, like a lost puppy. Noya didn't try to talk. He felt like anything he said right now would be the wrong thing. 

Once they were at the bottom of the stairs, instead of leading them to the walkway itself, where there were bright streetlamps and other pedestrians, Noya turned hard and went to stand against the concrete wall that supported the sidewalk above. It was darker here. No one else would notice them. Once his back was safely to the concrete, Asahi sagged against it in visible relief, closing his eyes again. 

In some ways, Noya figured, it was good that he felt like his job right now was to just shut the fuck up. He wouldn't have known what to begin to say. 

The minutes passed and Asahi's shoulders began to relax. He still didn't talk, but his breathing seemed to become less labored. Noya wondered if it was reasonable of him to not have anticipated this. Sure, Asahi had seemed shy at the basketball court but not like he was overwhelmed? He hadn't even seemed like that on the set, which had tons of people and studio lights. He remembered Suga's concerned text messages and Daichi's hand on the back of Asahi's neck and wondered if the presence of Asahi's two roommates had helped him, sort of like how Ryuu would often stand between Kiyoko and the rest of a crowded train. He looked up at Asahi's face, sickly pale even in the dim light, and wondered if Asahi was one of those people from whom life had different rules. 

Noya was familiar with those people. His little brother hadn't said his first words till the age of three. He'd barely spoken at all until the age of seven when their parents had taken him to see someone about it. Noya had been speaking for him up until that point, able to anticipate his needs, but he couldn't speak for him when they were at school. 

Or take Ryuu's house. The white board on his and Kiyoko's fridge that the words _"TAKE YOUR MEDS!"_ written on it in Ryuu's aggressive handwriting. "Those people," it seemed, were Noya's people. 

Eventually, Noya's restless energy had began to stir beneath his skin and he pulled out his phone to scroll idly through social media. He had sent about six dumb memes to the group chat when he became aware of someone looking at him.

Glancing up, he saw Asahi watching him, eyes slightly wide. He didn't looked startled or scared and actually, if Noya ran it against the range of expressions he'd seen from the guy so far, he'd say it was something like wonder. 

"Feeling better?" Noya asked. 

"A little." One of Asahi's arms came to grip his other bicep. 

"Oh, here's your coat," Noya said, holding it out.

"Thank you." Asahi looked at it as though he'd totally forgotten it existed.

"You took the bus here right? Want me to walk you back to your stop?" 

"Oh. Um..." Then Asahi's eyes widened again, startled this time. "Oh! Our bill! We didn't—"

"Relax Asahi-san, I paid." Noya offered him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I don't eat and run." Then, with his habitual honesty, "Not _anymore_ anyway."

"Not any—" Asahi huffed a small laugh, and Noya considered it a huge victory. 

"So, you want me to walk you?" It was an honest question. The night seemed to be over but he had no idea if Asahi needed him to stay for a bit, or just buzz off.

Asahi didn't seem to know either. He debated for a minute and then said, "If you're sure?"

"Totally sure. Come on." And Noya led them back up the way they came. 

_You know,_ he thought. _Probably good we didn't call this a date._ He could practically _feel_ the guilt coming off Asahi in waves, and they were just supposed to be two dudes hanging out. 

Asahi's bus stop was a few blocks away. They started walking in silence, but Noya would have to be blind to miss the way Asahi kept glancing at him anxiously. 

"You okay?" Noya asked after about the fifth worried look. 

Asahi glanced away from him and then back. "I'm sorry about this," he said. "It was supposed to be fun."

"It _was_ fun, Asahi-san," Noya said honestly. 

"But I freaked out and then just _left,_ and you had to pay for the meal."

"But I _said_ I was gonna pay." Noya felt the simple truth of his words through his whole body. It _was_ fun. He'd _wanted_ to. 

He watched Asahi take in his words and his expression. "If you're sure..." he offered finally.

"I don't say things I don't mean, Asahi-san." 

Asahi was quiet so long, Noya wasn't sure he was going to speak again. Noya'd let his gaze drift back to the sidewalk in front of him, let his focus wander. When Asahi did speak, it almost startled him. "That's unusual, isn't it?"

"Is it?" Noya looked back up at him. "Do people lie a lot where you come from?"

"Not lie exactly..." Asahi sighed and Noya wondered if, like his brother Asahi sometimes reached a point where words just stopped coming. "Some people keep things inside," Asahi concluded finally.

Noya hummed. "Yeah, no argument there." The sign post ahead of them indicated the bus stop. "You gonna be okay?" he asked as they slowed. 

Asahi nodded. "Thank you," he said softly. "This was really nice of you."

"Aww, it was nothing," Noya said, trying to sound casual. He valiantly repressed the part of him that wanted to like, get Asahi a cab, or at the very least wait with him and glare at everyone who so much as looked his way. Fussing over the guy would probably just embarrass him more. "Text me when you get home?"

Asahi's eyebrows jumped in surprise. "Oh-okay."

"Also for real, don't worry about the bill. Next time we'll go dutch, okay?"

"N-next time?" 

"Well sure." Noya tried to give him a gentle smile. "We're friends now right?"

"Yes of course, but—"

"Then there you go." He couldn't help his smile getting wider but he figured it was probably best for him to fuck off and let Asahi have some peace and quiet. God knew he wasn't good at either. "'Kay I'm out. And I meant it. Text me when you get home."

"I will."

"G'night Asahi-san."

"Good night Noya." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are <3


	6. Do You Think He Was Flirting

It was immediately obvious to Asahi as he entered his apartment that Suga and Daichi were in their room. And that they were...occupied. He felt his stomach sink. He didn't begrudge his friends their relationship, but his nerves were already feeling raw and he didn't want to have to blast music in his headphones to drown them out right now. 

As quickly as possible, he changed into his most comfortable workout clothes and headed for the building's stairwell. It was not quite 10:00 p.m. Even though it was a Friday night, he was hoping that no one would be coming or going. He needed _some_ semblance of privacy.

Settling himself on the steps, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and texted Kenma. Kenma was good at not asking questions and always responded quickly. 

From: Asahi  
_Do you have any pictures of cute animals?_

The response was almost immediate.

From: Kenma  
_[>image attached](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e2/55/a1/e255a1e433105bcbf891060bde64e958.jpg)_

It was a picture of a cat giving the thumbs up. Asahi smiled wanly and settled himself onto the step a little more.  
It would have been hard to explain to someone why Kenma had the best cute animal pictures, but somehow, whatever pictures Kenma picked to send him always soothed him more than just googling "cute animals" on his own. Kenma sent him pictures of cats cuddling while they slept, as entwined together as it was possible to be. He sent a video of a house cat grooming a fully-grown lynx in a zoo. He sent a gif of two otters holding hands so they wouldn't drift out to sea and Asahi actually started to tear up. It felt good to finally get the tears out, and not in front of Noya.

Speaking of Noya...

He was in the middle of texting Kenma an appropriate number of exclamation marks when his phone lit up again.

From: Noya  
_did you get home ok?_

A tear actually slipped down his cheek at that. There was too much for him to begin to even process what he was feeling. He knew that he had been so excited to go tonight, to be considered Noya's friend. But then his fight or flight had been activated standing between Noya and that reporter. And the bar had been so _loud_ , he couldn't calm himself down _._ He knew it wasn't anyone's fault. Urawa would tell him it wasn't even his own fault, but it was hard to take the bitter disappointment of Noya seeing him like that. He wanted Noya to think he was even a little bit cool.

He tried and failed three times to come up with some light and breezy version of the word "yes," before he finally just sent him the thumbs-up cat Kenma had sent him. 

From: Noya  
_wtf this is so cute_

Asahi's weak laughter came out in a puff and he scrubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. For whatever weird reason, Noya seemed to be treating him the exact same. It seemed like it'd be in his best interests to not do anything to ruin it. He settled for letting the conversation be and texting Kenma instead.

From: Asahi  
_Thank you Kenma._ _  
_ _This really helped. :)_

From: Kenma  
_(/^-^(^ ^*)/ ♡_

After about twenty minutes had passed, Asahi decided to try his luck and go back home. It was mercifully quiet when he opened the door. Suga was sitting on the couch, lit only by the light from the kitchen as he watched something on his laptop.

"Hey," he said softly as Asahi came in. "Oh! Did you change already?"

"Ah, yeah." Asahi set his keys in the bowl by the door. "You were still busy when I came home so..."

"So you did a lap around the block?" Suga smiled knowingly. 

"Just on the stairs. I was talking to Kenma."

Suga patted the couch next to him and Asahi came to sit beside him, letting Suga lean against his arm. "How was it?" Suga asked, cheek against his shoulder.

Asahi took a deep breath to calm himself. The exhale was loud.

"Oh no," Suga said softly. "What happened?"

Slowly, Asahi began to explain. There was a confrontation, the bar was loud, he got overwhelmed. Noya had followed him out, had led him to a quieter spot, and then walked him to the bus stop. 

"He's so _nice_ Suga," Asahi lamented. 

"You're nice too."

"I wanted him to think I'm cool."

"Asahi, you _are_ cool." Suga lifted his head to look at him. "Sure, it was too loud and Noya had to help you, but you've done things for him too. You wrapped his ankle, and scared off some guy who was bothering him. The way he sees it, you're probably still one up on him."

"But he paid for dinner," Asahi pointed out, even if he could feel his embarrassment begin to soothe a little. 

"Then you're even," Suga said, and Asahi could see the logic. The smile on Suga's face said that he knew he was making points. "Right?" he prodded.

"Maybe," Asahi agreed cautiously. The part of his mind that was so mean to him was beginning to ease. 

"Walking you to your bus stop doesn't sound like someone who doesn't like you anymore."

"Oh," Asahi recalled. "He did say we should hang out again."

"Then there you go." Suga's smile grew. He poked Asahi in the ribs and laughed when he jumped. "Tell me one of the good parts about tonight."

Something rose to the forefront of Asahi's mind. "Suga..." he began. There was a thought that had struck him at the bar, had hit like a bolt of lighting. It seemed completely absurd now.

"Hm?"

"...Never mind."

"That never works, Asahi," Suga chided. "You brought it up. What is it?"

"...He said I looked like a sexy violin player."

Suga snorted and covered his mouth with his hand. "He _said_ that?" he asked, eyes sparkling. 

"Yes, and a vampire who isn't evil—"

Suga snorted again, behind his hand this time, and his other hand came up to cover the first. "I _love_ Noya," he sighed once he'd composed himself. 

That was... cryptic at best. Asahi knew there wasn't a chance of Suga letting him off the hook, so he forged ahead. "What do you think it means?"

Suga studied his face, and Asahi had time to regret how well his best friend knew him. "What do _you_ think it means?"

"I just." Asahi rubbed at the back of his neck slowly. "Does that maybe sound like flirting to you?"

The delight on Suga's face was already an answer but his words were interrupted by another voice going, "Asahi?"

Daichi poked his head out of the bedroom sporting some truly fantastic bedhead, and a red mark at the base of his throat that would be covered by a collared shirt come Monday. Asahi immediately resolved to ignore both. 

"We think Noya was flirting with Asahi," Suga said cheerfully. Asahi groaned.

"Yeah?" Daichi padded over to the couch, sitting on Asahi's other side. "You pick up some signals?"

"Well they probably don't matter _now,_ " Asahi began.

"Aht-aht-aht," Suga tsked. "No. We've been over this."

Daichi eyed them both. "What happened?"

Explaining the events a second time was less painful than the first. His brain had begun to process them, to see them through someone else's eyes. And as Daichi agreed with what Suga said, Asahi began to try to let himself believe it.

"He texted me," Asahi admitted. "To make sure I got home safe."

"He did?" Suga once again looked delighted.

"Yeah." Asahi unlocked his phone and handed it over.

"Asahi, this is not the behavior of someone who never wants to see you again," Suga said. 

"He's right," Daichi said from Asahi's other shoulder. Asahi was struck with the image of a shoulder angel and shoulder devil. Or maybe two of a kind, depending on the day. "You're a sexy violinist. Of course he wants to see you again."

Asahi felt his face go red, and hid it in his hands. 

"Did you _want_ him to be flirting with you?" Suga asked gently.

This... This question had not occurred to him. It was a question that was so rarely relevant to ask for him because even if he got his share of attention, the answer was always _no._ "I...I don't know," he said. 

Suga's smile remained but his eyes had widened slightly. He knew what a big deal it was that Asahi hadn't said an outright no.

"Not for nothing," Daichi said. "But he was flirting with you at the basketball court too."

"He was?" Asahi squeaked. 

"Yeah, did you not see the way he was staring at you?"

"O-oh." Asahi resisted the urge to bury his face in his hands again. He settled for looking down at them instead. This possibility was just too much for him to try to process tonight. There was too much else he needed to think about. "I think I need to go to bed," he said finally.

"Sleep on it," Daichi agreed easily. 

"Sleep on it," Suga echoed, giving his hand a final squeeze. "We love you, Asahi." 

Asahi didn't much remember what he dreamed about that night. He just remembered it carried the familiar aftertaste of a stress dream, where he woke up with his stomach already in knots. Fortunately, Saturday was one of his days off and he let himself lie in bed a little longer than usual, feeling his body relax.

At some point in the day, before he could overthink it anymore, he texted Noya.

From: Asahi  
_Will we see you at the park tomorrow?_

From: Noya  
_can't sorry :(((_ _  
_ _Kiyoko's family's in town i got a hot ticket to the reunion_ _  
_ _i said yes ages ago_

From: Asahi  
_Oh no problem then. :)_ _  
_ _Have fun!_

He thought that would be the end of it, but then his phone buzzed again.

From: Noya  
_wanna make plans next weekend tho?_ _  
_ _come over and i'll show you some REAL video games_

It took Asahi a minute to process this. Noya was reaching out. He still wanted to be friends. This was proof. 

From: Asahi  
_I thought you said Neko Atsume *was* a real game..._

From: Noya  
_neko atsume is art_ _  
_ _but there are SO MANY OTHER GOOD GAMES_

From: Asahi  
_Oh, you must be a video game expert. ^^_

From: Noya  
_call me professor B)_

From: Asahi  
_In that case..._  
_Please take care of me, Professor Nishinoya._

Noya's response to this wasn't as forthcoming and Asahi started to be nervous. Had he said something wrong? He was getting used to Noya's near instantaneous responses. Maybe his last reply had sounded a little too much like flirting. Suga's voice rang in his head; _Did you_ want _it to be?_

Fortunately, his train of thought was broken by his phone buzzing again. 

From: Noya  
_of course young grasshopper_  
_anyway have you ever played mario kart?_

Asahi felt himself relax.

Saturday night, Asahi dreamed about Noya. Asahi hadn't had a sexual dream in years. Not that this one was sexual, strictly speaking. But, well _._ It wasn't certainly wasn't _innocent_. In it, Noya was sitting on the counter of his own kitchen, a place Asahi hadn't ever actually seen, but that his brain seemed more than happy to conjure. Noya was shirtless, was actually stripped down to just his boxers, which Asahi imagined, for some reason, as having the pattern of the British flag. Dream Asahi planted his palms on the counter, on either side of Noya's thighs and kissed him. The force of it caused Noya's head to bump back against the cupboards, so Asahi brought one hand up to cup the back of his head, to cushion him. They broke away after several moments, resting temple-to-temple, and in Asahi's dream state it was suddenly very important to him that he look down and note the color of Noya's nipples.

(Upon waking up, he was completely unable to say what color they were.)

His conscious mind would later supply the transition where Noya panted, _"Asahi-san,"_ with his strong, slender arms around Asahi's neck. _"We gotta move."_ In the dream though, it just sort of happened. One moment they were making out with Noya perched on the counter and the next, Asahi was laying Noya out on his back over his kitchen table. ¥500,000 was scattered in loose bills all over the surface, some of them fluttering to the floor as Noya settled in. Asahi leaned his weight on his forearms, which were framing Noya's face. Noya's arms were back around his neck and his legs clamped tight around Asahi's hips. 

It felt unfair that the dream should just fade out like dreams did, without reaching any conclusion at all. But when Asahi woke at the same time as usual on Sunday morning, the scene came back to him slowly. He felt distinctly unsettled again. 

Asahi's experience with physical attraction was that he felt it basically never. There had been one or two exceptions, but he had been told that finding literally only two people attractive in 28 years of life was unusual. 

"Even for you?" he'd asked Suga once. Suga and Daichi had been together since they were 18. This didn't seem like it was a lot of time to find other people attractive.

Suga had tapped a finger on his bottom lip, considering how to reply. "It's not that the other crushes I had felt like Daichi," he said finally. "But I have met a lot of people who made me feel interested. And sometimes that interest turned into a crush. Sometimes it didn't go anywhere. But you don't even seem interested in the _idea_."

This was... more or less true. He liked the idea as a vague, abstract concept. He even considered himself a romantic at heart. But love or attraction as an idea that included _him_? He had almost never been open to it. He had been on dates, had held hands, had been kissed but had never initiated kissing. He knew what physical attraction felt like, but it was wildly outside his usual wheelhouse.

 _Graysexual,_ Kenma had suggested once, over text. _Once every ten years, your number comes up._

Asahi was rapidly starting to suspect his number had come up. 

He suddenly swung his legs over the side of his bed and padded over to his desk, digging out the small tub of modelling clay he kept in one of the drawers. He hadn't processed everything enough to express himself even here, but it helped to roll the clay between his fingers.

His phone buzzing on his nightstand made him jump.

From: Noya  
_god ur so lucky I love u_

Asahi's heart rate was immediately through the stratosphere. His whole body grew too warm. 

From: Asahi  
_Noya??????_

Hitting "send" he began to count the seconds. He was at twenty three when he got a response.

From: Noya  
_WHOOPS_ _  
_ _hey asahi-san_ _  
_ _that was supposed to be fore ruyy lol_ _  
_ _*for whoops_ _  
_ _***RYUU SHIT_

From: Asahi  
_Ah, it's okay!_ _  
_ _Why is Tanaka so lucky?_ _  
_ _Other than that you love him of course. :)_

From: Noya  
_sjdhsbsjdj_ _  
_ _asahi-san_ _  
_ _that's like the cutest thing anyone's ever said about me and ryuu_ _  
_ _anyway because it's like ass o' clock_ _  
_ _and we're on our way to the gd beach for the gd shimizu family reunion_ _  
_ _and i barely know any of these people_ _  
_ _and i'm in a van with all kiyoko's aunties and they keep talking about when am i gonna find a wife and have kids_

From: Asahi  
_Oh no. :(_ _  
_ _That sounds uncomfortable._ _  
_ _But also it's not that early is it?_

From: Noya  
_Asahi_ _  
_ _san_ _  
_ _Asahi-san_ _  
_ _Asa-san_ _  
_ _...Asan_

From: Asahi  
_Nishinoya?_

From: Noya  
_it's 8;00 in the a.m._ _  
_ _on a SUNDAY_

From: Asahi  
_What time do you normally wake up on a Sunday?_

From: Noya  
_NOON_ _  
_ _OR 1_ _  
_ _LIKE A HUMAN BEING_ _  
_ _actually I used to be a total morning person if you can believe it_ _  
_ _but tbf you also gotta remember I work at night_ _  
_ _so i'm p much never in bed before 2am_

From: Asahi  
_Oh, that does make sense._ _  
_ _Wait, isn't tonight usually a night you tape?_

From: Noya  
_actually we tape during the week, we just air it on the weekends_ _  
_ _unless we have like a guest then we might do it live_ _  
_ _like with daichi-san_ _  
_ _but since you mention it_ _  
_ _we ARE doing a special beach episdoe today_ _  
_ _gonna air next week B)_

From: Asahi  
_Oh that sounds exciting :)_ _  
_ _Wait though..._ _  
_ _Isn't this Kiyoko's family time?_  
_So you have to work even on vacation?_

From: Noya  
_welcome to being a public figure eyyy_ _  
_ _not i'm like complaining or anything_ _  
_ _i love my job so much it's unreal_ _  
_ _and the three of us get to write this off as a business expense_ _  
_ _which let me tell you is SERIOUSLY AWESOME_ _  
_ _like imagine getting paid to hang out AT THE BEACH with Daichi-san and Suga-san_

From: Asahi  
_That does sound very awesome. :) :)_

From: Noya  
_now if I could only avoid the questions about when i'm gonna get a wife...._

From: Asahi  
_Ah, yes..._  
_Good luck..._

From: Noya  
_thankkks_  
_> image attached_ _  
_ _how about this view tho_

From: Asahi  
_Oh! The ocean!!_ _  
_ _You must have out-run the rain._ _  
_ _It's not as nice here._

From: Noya  
_lemme see?_

From: Asahi  
_Are you sure?_ _  
_ _It's probably boring..._

From: Noya  
_of course i'm sure_ _  
__pls give me anything else to focus on other than baby talk_

From: Asahi  
_> image attached_

From: Noya  
_lol yeah good luck playing basketball in that_ _  
_ _oh hey I can see your reflection in the window_ _  
_ _are those your pjs?_

From: Asahi  
_Oh sorry! I'm a mess right now._ _  
_ _Yes, they are... ///_

From: Noya  
_nah don't apologize it's pretty cute honestly_  
_wait was that blush marks_ _  
_ _are you blushing_ _  
_ _ASAHI-SAN_

From: Asahi  
_Noya!!_

From: Noya  
_Is that a yes_ _  
_ _( ͡° ͜ʖ├┬┴┬┴_

From: Asahi  
_...No comment._

From: Noya  
_i seriously doubt you ever look like a mess asahi-san_ _  
_ _you should see me right now_

Asahi took a long breath in. 

From: Asahi  
_You could show me if you wanted?_

From: Noya  
_> image attached_

 _Oh._ Noya was wearing a dark beanie pulled low over his forehead. His hair appeared ungelled, poking out to lie bright blue over his eyebrows, and framing his face in dark tufts around his ears. His oversized hoodie had the _Tanaka & Noya _logo on it, and his wide, pretty eyes did indeed look puffy with a lack of sleep. Two middle-aged women leaned into the photo from either side of the frame and possibly because of this, or because of his own evaluation of his appearance, Noya's smile was wry and self-deprecating.

 _Cute,_ Asahi's whole body whispered. _Cute, cute, cute._

All of a sudden, he felt overwhelmed. 

_Respond,_ he told himself sternly. _Respond._ What would he have said if it was Suga? Or his niece?

From: Asahi _  
_ _:) :) :) :)_ _  
_ _You don't look like a mess either, Noya._ __  
_I need to go on a run now._ _  
_ _Good luck on your bus ride!_

He left his phone on his desk, and immediately got up to change. 


	7. Family Dinners

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting this a day early is self care

Sunday nights were dinners at the Sawamura house. It was a tradition that Asahi loved. Sometimes Suga’s parents joined, or Asahi’s own family. The parents didn’t spend much time together separate from their sons but they all respected each other and tried to stay somewhat in touch. Asahi knew that his own parents had gone to Suga’s for advice when they started to have concerns about his sexuality after high school. They were tied together as long as their sons were, and their sons didn’t plan on leaving each other any time soon.

The Sawamura parents were steady and direct like Daichi himself. As his father set their food down in front of them he said, “Asahi-kun, did you know the doctor said my wife’s blood pressure isn’t dropping?”

“Asahi’s not a nutritionist, Dad,” Daichi said, in the middle of filling up everyone’s cups with water. 

“She’s been slacking on those exercises you gave her,” Uncle Hideki continued as though Daichi hadn’t spoken. 

“Oh has she?” Asahi’s eyes darted towards Daichi’s mother. 

“I don’t see how stretching my shoulders is supposed to lower my blood pressure,” Aunt Aikiko said.

“There are stretches you can do to promote relaxation,” Asahi said. He’d known Daichi’s parents since he was a kid and even though he always spoke politely, he felt comfortable enough with them to be stern. “This was in the handout I gave you, Auntie.”

“I knew I should have put that handout on the fridge,” Uncle Hideki said.

“You did,” Daichi said. “I saw it last week.”

“How mysterious that it seems to have disappeared,” Suga said, watching his de-facto mother-in-law with bright eyes.

“You can’t prove anything,” Aunt Aikiko said, reaching for her water glass.

“Do you not _like_ the stretches I made for you?” Asahi made sure his expression was soft and not accusatory. It was an honest question. 

Aunt Aikiko stared at him for a moment. “Damnit, Asahi-kun,” she muttered. “I’ll do the damn stretches, put the puppy eyes away.”

“No swearing at the dinner table,” Uncle Hideki interjected, nudging his wife’s shoulder. 

“Not before you’ve had your first beer anyway!” Suga chirped. 

Asahi had gotten messages from Noya at some point, but he couldn't open them at dinner. One of them was even an image file, he’d seen the preview before he’d tucked the phone away. The knowledge sat warm in his pocket, and for once it was difficult to not ignore his cell. It gave a strange sense of restlessness to his skin, as though he hoped that someone would ask him about his social life. If they asked him, he could experience the relief of saying… what? _There’s someone I’m texting? I went out to dinner with someone once and it wasn’t even a date?_

Asahi took a subtle, steadying breath. Focusing on the flow of the dinner table’s conversation, he did his best to shove thoughts of Noya’s messages aside.

He showed Aunt Aikiko the corpse pose after dinner. It turned into them moving the coffee table out of the living room so that they could all lie down and try it, Daichi and Suga spilling into the hallway because there wasn’t enough room. 

“And this really helps?” Aunt Aikiko said, lying prone like he’d told her to. “You’re not just messing with us?”

“It does,” Asahi insisted. He rolled his head to the side to make eye contact with her, gaze earnest. “But it doesn’t replace actual exercise. Auntie, you should listen to your doctor.”

“Mom, why don’t you come play basketball with us?” Daichi asked. “Since you won’t go running with me.”

“I know what I’m about, son,” Aunt Aikiko said. “And it is not running.” 

“Go play ball with them, Aikikkun,” Uncle Hideki said. “Give me a break from being on your case about it.”

“Well now, that _is_ a tempting offer.” Aunt Aikiko stuck her tongue out at him. “Maybe I will.”

“Our little court is turning into quite the meeting ground,” Suga mused, his voice echoing from further down the hallway.

“Oh right, you play with those journalists don’t you?” Aunt Aikiko said. 

“They’re hosts. We’ve been over this,” Uncle Hideki said. “They’re late-night hosts. They don’t do original journalism.”

“Potato, po-tah-to.” 

The Sawamura parents fell into what seemed to be well-trodden bickering about the importance of journalism. Asahi listened to them with an absent smile. “We’d like it if you’d come Auntie,” was all he said eventually.

“Come with us, Mom,” Suga called. “We can play proper two-on-two.”

“Well in that case,” Aunt Aikiko said as Asahi’s phone timer went off, indicating their stretch was over. “Let’s call it a date.” Getting to her feet, she said, “Who wants another drink?”

As they all settled on the couches, beer in their hands, Daichi talked to his parents about the upcoming field trip he was taking a select group of senior students on. They were going to city hall. They had created bylaw proposals and thanks to the publicity Daichi’s interviews had generated, city hall had agreed to take the meeting. Suga and Asahi were going too, as chaperones and Asahi was cautiously excited.

"I'm glad we got some city council members to show up too," Daichi was saying. "Mayor Furukawa is fine but the council is the one who'll actually do anything with the students' ideas." 

“Furukawa is only fine because city council picks up the slack,” Uncle Hideki said. “Did you see the news about his proposal to ban jumbo sodas?”

“Yes,” Daichi said, “but I was more interested in the report about how the municipal budget actually got balanced this year.”

Asahi tried to look engaged, even as he finally pulled his phone out and read over his texts from Noya.

From: Noya  
 _dude i'm so excited for you to see this beach episode_ _  
__it was so much fun to shoot_ _  
__also i made me and ryuu matching shirts_ _  
__cuz everyone else for the family reunion got matching ones yannow_ _  
__so i wanted in on the action_ _  
__but also definitely been wanting to make these for a while_ _  
__check it out_ _  
__> image attached_

The photo Noya sent was of him and Tanaka, their arms slung over each other's shoulders. The shirts were deep red and each had a bold, painted-on anglicized font. Noya's said "I’M YUU, HE’S RYUU." Tanaka's said "I’M RYUU, HE’S YUU."

Asahi's eyes widened the tiniest bit, impressed. He zoomed in on the photo to see better. The shirts looked well-done and the easy confidence with which Noya and Tanaka wore them made it look like they were modelling for some small, hip street-fashion company. 

From: Asahi  
 _Did you do those by hand?_ _  
__Noya, they look so good!!_ _  
__Your handwriting is amazing??_ _  
__...Is Tanaka wearing eyeliner?_

"What is it?" Daichi asked. With a start, Asahi realized everyone was watching him. "You've got this look on your face."

"Oh,” Asahi said, suddenly feeling flustered. “It's Noya." He held out his phone for Daichi to look.

“The journalist-host, Noya?” Aunt Aikiko looked surprised.

“Not a journalist,” Uncle Hideki deadpanned.

"I like their shirts," Suga said, looking over Daichi's shoulder.

"Yeah!" Asahi agreed happily. "Noya made them."

"Did he?" Suga leaned in closer to zoom in. His face morphed into something suitably impressed.

“Do you guys talk to those two a lot these days?” Uncle Hideki asked, taking a sip of his beer.

“Asahi hung out with Noya on Friday,” Suga said.

"Is Tanaka wearing _eyeliner_?" Daichi asked. Asahi's phone buzzed, as if in response. "Oh yeah, Noya says he is. Damn." He handed Asahi's phone back to him so Asahi could check his messages.

From: Noya  
 _yah dude_ _  
__listen ryuu looks better in eyeliner than literally anyone else i've ever met_ _  
__idk what it is_ _  
__its unreal_ _  
__anyway what you up to tonight_

From: Asahi  
 _He does look good :)_ _  
__I'm out with Daichi and Suga right now._ _  
__We’re having dinner at Daichi’s parents’._

From: Noya  
 _oh right cuz it’s sunday_ _  
__yo_ _  
__yo_ _  
__asahi-san can i call you_ _  
__or would that be rude_ _  
__I wanna show you something_ _  
__but I don’t wanna get you in trouble with auntie and uncle_

Asahi's eyebrows made for his hairline. 

"What is it?" Daichi asked. 

"He’s asking to video call? He says he wants to show me something." His eyes found Daichi’s parents. “Is that okay? We’re having family time.”

“Is everything alright with him?” Uncle Hideki asked.

From: Asahi  
 _Is everything okay?_

From: Noya  
 _yeahyeah everthing's cool_ _  
__just someone got ryuu dancing_ _  
__and like_ _  
__ryuu dancing is high ART_

From: Asahi  
 _Oh!_ _  
__I would like to see that._ _  
__Let me ask._

“He says Tanaka is dancing?” 

“He calls you to show you things like that?” Aunt Aikiko had a keen look on her face that reminded Asahi of Suga. 

“It’s fine by me, Asahi-kun,” Uncle Hideki said. “As long as we can watch too."

Asahi smiled. “Okay.” 

From: Asahi  
 _They said it’s okay!_

He handed the phone to Uncle Hideki because he was sitting in the armchair and that would be the easiest for everyone to crowd around.

_ >Incoming video call: Noya _

"Hey Asahi-san!” Noya's face appeared on-screen. His grin was familiar and wide. He had a flower behind each ear.

"Noya! Hi!" Asahi tried to sound anything other than completely breathless. He watched Noya’s face change as he realized he had a full audience and his expression fell into amicable politeness. 

“Oh, it’s Daichi-san’s parents!” He dipped his head, in what was probably a bow but was hard to see on video. “Good evening.”

“Good evening.” Uncle Hideki sounded calmly amused.

“Hello Noya-kun,” Aunt Aikiko said.

Noya, of course, fell right back into his stride. "Okay so, let me know if you can see this." He flipped his camera around, to where a group of people were standing in a circle. The footage became unsteady as Noya walked closer, and the sound of music could be heard pumping distantly. At the center of the circle was Tanaka and he was doing the worm.

"Oh wow!" Asahi felt his eyes getting wide, taking in the easy grace, the confidence with which Tanaka moved. Beside him, Daichi’s parents exclaimed too, suitably impressed. Asahi himself would never be able to dance like that. He'd never be able to move with even a quarter of that rhythm. He was built for power, not fluidity. 

It was a sentiment that Daichi could relate to if the low whistle he gave was anything to go by. "Could _you_ do that?" he murmured into Suga's hair.

"I'd have to practice," he replied, eyes still fixed on the screen. 

"Whaddya think?" Noya crowed, his face coming into view again. "Amazing right?"

"Really amazing," Daichi agreed. "Asahi said you're at a family reunion?"

"Yeah, Kiyoko's relatives are all here. We just wrapped up filming a little while ago? And we got catering from one of the restaurants on the boardwalk which was fu— fricking delicious." Aunt Aikiko snorted at the censoring.

"That sounds amazing," Suga chimed in. “It sounds like you’re having a great time.”

“Sure am!” Noya looked up at the screen expectantly.

There was the slightest of pauses and then Daichi said, “We’re going to give you back to Asahi okay?”

“Sounds good! Nice to meet you,” he added to Daichi’s parents.

“You too,” Uncle Hideki told him.

Asahi pulled the phone closer to himself and when they turned off video, lifted it to his ear. "Noya?"

"We still good for next weekend?"

"Still good," Asahi confirmed, moving into the dining room where he could focus on Noya's voice without distraction. "I just hope you have realistic expectations.” 

There was a pause. 

“...About what?” Noya’s tone was odd.

The question caught Asahi off guard. “Ah well, I warned you, right? I’m no good at video games.”

“OH. _Oh._ Yeah, no worries Asahi-san, I know what I signed up for.” Noya’s regular tone was back. “Hey, what kinda souvenirs do you all want? I'll bring you something." 

“Oh, um.” Asahi pushed his confusion aside and tried to think. “I really like the flowers you were wearing?”

“Really?” Noya sounded delighted. “You like that?”

“I do,” Asahi assured him. “They’re really pretty.”

“Daichi-san and Suga-san want flowers too?”

“I’ll ask.” Asahi poked his head back into the living room. “Excuse me, Noya wants to know if you want him to bring you flowers for your souvenirs.”

“Will they survive the car trip back?” Daichi asked, ignoring the interested looks that had come over his parents’ faces.

“One second.” Asahi put the phone back to his ear.

“I heard that,” Noya said. “Bet you I can find some nice-looking fake ones. Boom. Problem solved.”

“Boom,” Asahi echoed, feeling a smile pull at his face. 

“Okay I’m gonna let you go, Asahi-san. See you next weekend!”

“Oh wait, Noya,” he said as something occurred to him.

“Hm?” 

“Are you going to come play basketball too? Daichi’s mom is joining us.” 

“Oh damn, no way.” The grin was apparent in Noya’s voice. “Then yeah, we’ll definitely be there.”

“Okay good.” Asahi’s smile grew. “See you then!”

“Ciao.”

“So,” Aunt Aikiko said as Asahi rejoined them in the living room. “Am I going to get to meet the famous Tanakoya before your parents do? They’re gonna be jealous, Asahi-kun.”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry about it,” Asahi assured her. “They’ve never even seen the show, so they won’t care.”

Aunt Aikiko’s eyebrow arched. “...Uh-huh.”

“Have _you_ even seen the show?” Daichi asked.

“I saw your interview,” Aunt Aikiko retorted. “What kind of mother do you think I am?”

Asahi breathed deep and happy, and settled himself comfortably back onto the couch.

“Asahi, if I were you,” Daichi said later, when the three of them were putting on their coats to leave. “I’d tell your parents about Noya.”

“What?” Asahi frowned in concern. “What do you mean?” He’d told them about Daichi’s interview of course, though they’d only watched the clip he’d sent them. He didn’t want them to watch Tanaka and Noya and Daichi joking about having a three-way or smoking on the roof. 

“‘Cause my parents were _very_ interested about why you were talking to Nishinoya Yuu on the phone, and they are definitely going to tell your parents about it.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” Asahi said as he followed Daichi out the front door. “We’ve only hung out once.”

“But he only invited _you_ to hang out,” Suga pointed out, locking up behind him. “He didn’t ask me and Daichi to dinner.”

“That wasn’t a date,” Asahi said. His body was flushing warm.

Suga hummed. “Funny how that’s where your mind went.” Asahi hissed, caught out.

“I’m just saying,” Daichi said, talking over them. “It’s unusual for you to be so comfortable around new people. My folks definitely picked up on it.”

Asahi wasn’t going to deny that Daichi’s parents knew him well. They’d seen him grow up after all. But still… “What would I even say? That I’m hanging out with a friend?”

“Why not say that?” Suga said. “When you talk to your mom next, mention who you’ve got plans with next weekend. It doesn’t have to be anything bigger than that.”

Asahi felt a little tangled by this whole conversation but he knew ironically, that he was feeling tangled about feeling tangled. It was true that he was shy around new people but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have a healthy social life. It had been so long since meeting someone new had him feeling like this, a feeling as tender as a blister. It was making him off-balance. 

He was suddenly very glad he was seeing Kenma this week. Kenma would help.

Asahi and Kenma’s friendship was a surprise to the entire friend group, and especially to Asahi and Kenma. Both of them were shy. Both of them were anxious. Neither of them were gifted at actively befriending others. But Kenma was with Kuroo and Kuroo was friends with Daichi, so Kenma and Asahi occasionally found themselves at the same social outings. It only took a few times stuck in the corner together, silently commiserating about loud music or loud people for their bond to be cemented. Before he knew it, Kozume Kenma had become one of Asahi’s very dear friends. 

He met with Kenma on a Tuesday after work. The art studio was in the loft above the gallery. “Asahi,” Kenma said in his typically soft voice. “Come in.”

“Hi Kenma. Sorry for the intrusion.” Asahi came to sit at his usual drawing board. Kenma took his seat at the one across from him. “Did you catch Whiteshadow yet?” Kenma was the person who got him into Neko Atsume. He collected all the rare cats Asahi didn’t know how to get.

“No.” Kenma was sulking, which was to say his voice was the same and his bottom lip stuck out two millimeters further than usual. “He mocks me.”

“He’s a strong opponent, huh?” Asahi pretended gravity as he dug into his bag for his pencil case.

“His end will come.” Ah, the eyebrows had gotten involved, pinching very slightly.

He looked so serious that Asahi smiled. “I’m rooting for you.” Pulling up his stool, he settled in to work.

The next piece he and Kenma were planning was a full installation. They didn’t have a concept decided on yet but they had time. The next amateur art showing wasn’t for a few months. Today they were just making thumbnails, testing their ideas. They would make detailed notes and pass their papers back and forth, having conversations in the margins. Explaining their ideas out loud made both of them feel stupid, passing notes was easier.

For his own part, Asahi focused on the logistics of building an installation because the more hands-on aspects would undoubtedly fall to him. He focused his little thumbnail sketches on the kinds of things he might like to try to build. With a wry smile he recalled one that he’d seen in a magazine once, cars stacked on top on top each other, on top of the stump of a gnarled old tree. This was wildly unfeasible but it was fun to imagine. Where would he get the cars? Maybe Daichi and Suga and Kuroo would go with him and Kenma to the junkyard. He imagined Kenma wrinkling his nose in distaste at the loud noises, the smell of car exhaust. 

_Better bring Noya and Tanaka instead,_ he decided. _They’d fit in way better._

The thought of Noya gave him pause. His gaze went a little unfocused as he stared at the drawing board, conjuring the scene. It would be a warm day, him, Kenma, Noya, and Tanaka crammed into Asahi’s dad’s dingy old work truck, off to pick out old cars for this absurd project. He imagined them tumbling out of the cab at the junkyard, Noya and Tanaka immediately endearing themselves to all the yard’s workers, and even the feral cats, the kind that Asahi imagined were always hanging around these establishments. Noya would hold out his hand to them and smile that easy smile and they would want to come to him just like Asahi did.

Asahi frowned, catching himself. He blinked at his desk a few times, to clear his head. He imagined Kenma’s face on the other side of the wood. Asahi _had_ been meaning to ask him, hadn’t he? Kenma was just as bad with people, if not worse, and yet he had a partner. Kenma, Asahi was sure, would understand his dilemma.

Tearing off a corner off a page in his notebook, he deliberated over his wording before finally writing, _Can I ask you about Kuroo?_

Reaching around their desks, he held out the folded paper until he felt slender fingers tug it away.

There was the light scratching of Kenma’s pencil and then the paper was back. _What did he do._

_Nothing! I need dating advice._

There was dead silence from the other side of the board, and then...

“Asahi,” came that quiet voice. “You know I’ve only been with Kuro right?” 

“I do know.” Asahi looked down at his hands, organizing his thoughts. “That’s why I wanted to ask _you._ ”

The silence stretched, as if Kenma was now the one contemplating. If he and Kuroo had never met, he would likely have never dated anyone and they both knew it. Everyone did.

“What… did you want to know?” he asked finally.

What _did_ Asahi want to know? He shuffled through any number of possible questions before settling on one that maybe was the most immediate. “Didn’t it feel different? To, to be attracted to someone?” People had been special to him before. There was his family of course. There were Daichi and Suga, who were irreplaceable. Hell, the man sitting in this room with him was special to Asahi in his own way. But it felt so different that rather than simply _choosing_ someone with his conscious mind, rather than carefully deciding to create room for them in his life, his whole body was chomping at the bit, trying to force that decision for him. It was so different that his body saw one picture of someone and instantly wound him up so much that he needed to run 5km. How did people _live_ like that? It seemed incapacitating.

“Yeah. It was really different.” There was the sound of Kenma shifting in his seat. Asahi wondered if he was picking up his phone again. After a beat, Kenma continued. “I had always thought people were exaggerating when they talked about being in love. I thought ‘there’s no way it really feels like that.’ And then it did.”

“Wasn’t it scary?” It was a childish question. It fell out before Asahi could stop it.

“Oh yeah. It was the worst.” Kenma was definitely on his phone again. Asahi could hear the _tap-tapping_ of his thumbs. “Usually when I feel too much, I shut down. I don’t like feeling that strongly. But loving him didn’t have an off switch.” _Tap-tap. Tap-tap._ “I didn’t know what to do for a long time,” he admitted softly.

Asahi was so grateful. Even to hear this much from his reserved friend meant a lot. But he had more questions. “Is it okay to keep talking about it?” he asked after a moment. 

“It’s fine.”

“What about physical attraction?” His face heated, remembering his dream. He was glad they weren’t looking at each other. “Are you...physically attracted to Kuroo?”

Asahi could feel the embarrassed texture to the silence, but maybe that was him projecting. 

“...Yeah,” Kenma said softly. 

“How do you,” Asahi swallowed. “How do you handle it?” It felt like a _lot_ already and Asahi was only beginning to realize he had a crush. He couldn’t imagine experiencing what Kenma had, waking up one day and realizing he was already fully in love. 

“I didn’t. Not at first,” Kenma admitted. “I avoided him a lot.” _Tap-tap-tap._ “I didn’t mean to but... I ended up hurting his feelings.” 

“Oh.” Asahi let the moment of vulnerability roll over him, feeling regret for the Kenma and Kuroo of the past. _But they made it,_ he reminded himself. 

Kenma hummed. “Strong feelings need outlets,” he said. “That’s what my therapist says.”

Asahi took a deep breath. In through the nose. Out through the mouth. “So if seeing them makes you want to go for a run…” he began, tone self-deprecating.

“Wear comfortable shoes.”

Asahi laughed. The tension had eased from his shoulders so much that he almost forgot there was one more important question. It was the question that was maybe the crux of this whole conversation. “What made you decide to go for it, in the end?”

The tapping paused. Asahi imagined Kenma’s gold eyes sliding off to the side, thinking. “He makes me happy,” he said finally. “He always has. So even when it felt like too much, I ended up thinking, ‘if this kills me, it’s a good way to die.’”

 _Huh._ Asahi turned this over in his mind. There was something to that, he supposed. Maybe even a lot to that.

“Anything else I should know going in?” he asked, to wind the conversation down. Then he blinked, surprised at his own words. They were almost an admission. They implied some kind of decision. He pressed his palm to his chest. _My heart is skipping_ , he realized.

Kenma hummed, thinking. He still hadn’t resumed his mobile game. “In the beginning, you’ll probably feel a lot like ‘I can’t take this. I’m going to explode.’” There was a pause and Asahi acknowledged the inevitability of this to himself. “When that happens, I would start counting my breathing.” 

“In for five, hold for five?” Asahi asked, wry and empathetic and knowing. He did this too sometimes.

“Yeah. It helps.” 

Asahi pictured Noya, his bright smile, his easy confidence. He pictured how it felt when he caught Noya staring at him. If Noya did that because he _liked_ him... 

Asahi practiced counting his breaths. 

“Thank you, Kenma,” he said quietly. The _tap-tapping_ had started up again. 

When Kenma spoke this time, Asahi knew him well enough to hear the undercurrent of warmth in his voice. “Yeah.”

When he left the studio, he saw he had a text from his mom.

From: Mom  
 _Dad is watching the Golden Eagles game they are in Fukuoka today. 21°C there!_ _  
__I watched a nature documentary about S Korea earlier, your aunt told me about it._ _  
__Some wind tonight. If you go outside wear the scarf I bought you......_

From: Asahi  
 _I wish it was 21°C here too!_ _  
__The scarf you bought me is so nice, thank you again. I will send you a picture the next time I’m wearing it. :)_ _  
__I’m going to a friend’s house this Saturday. Do you remember the tv interview Daichi did? We play basketball with the hosts now. That’s who’s having me over, one of them. His name is Nishinoya Yuu._

From: Mom  
 _So nice to be able to make new friends._ _  
__Have fun..._

Asahi wished, not for the first time, that his mom understood how to use ellipses. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to everyone who left comments or kudos last time!


	8. Beach Episode

They filmed the beach episode in the hotel jacuzzi. The building was atop a low hill, giving the shot a great view of the ocean in the background. 

Noya and Ryuu were going to be sitting in the jacuzzi fully clothed, because one) they both thought it was funny and two) Kiyoko was going to be making a rare on-camera experience and didn’t want to show her body. Kiyoko’s comfort had been a constant consideration for them since the minute they’d met her, the minute they had all gotten assigned to work together for the show.

“Holy shit,” Noya had said during one of those early days when they had safely dropped her off at her front doorstep. “It doesn’t _end_.” 

He had been floored by how beautiful Kiyoko was the minute he saw her, of course he was, but he had never met someone that _everyone_ seemed to so badly want a piece of. Noya and Ryuu had taken the train with her one night after filming and then immediately vowed to never let her go by herself ever again. They had spent the entire time glaring down every drunk or unruly man who looked her way, taking in their leering smiles and aggressively refuting their suggestive comments.

“I’m really glad she didn’t know us in high school,” Ryuu had admitted. Noya physically startled and turned to look at him. “We weren’t much better back then.”

Shame flushed hot through Noya’s body. It was an uncomfortable bit of self-awareness but he wasn’t going to deny Ryuu was right. “Glad she met us now,” he said by way of agreement. 

Back in the present, he and Ryuu were settling into the warm water. They were wearing their matching shirts. Ryuu had been so stoked about them, just like Noya knew he would be, immediately pulling off the shirt he was wearing to put on the one Noya handed him.

“Master Noya,” he had said with affected emotion, hand pressed to his chest. “You’ve delivered us yet another masterpiece.”

“Tanaka-san,” Noya said, reflecting the emotion right back. “You are too kind to me.”

“No Master. You are too kind to _me._ ”

Hair and makeup surrounded them. Noya would have thought there was no point to getting their faces powdered if they were for sure going to be sweating it off over the course of filming, but apparently makeup science was super advanced these days. He listened as his stylist talked about “long-lasting” this and “smudge-proof” that.

“We can’t allow men to beat us by taking us swimming on the first date,” she told him, as she sprayed something pleasant and misty all over his face. 

“What?” 

“Have you never heard that?” She smiled. “Men say if you want to know what a girl looks like without makeup, take her swimming on the first date.”

 _Huh._ “But makeup looks so cool!" Noya pointed out reasonably. “Besides if she put all that effort into looking good for you, why wouldn’t you wanna see the results?”

She patted his hair approvingly. “Atta boy.”

“One minute warning!” someone called. Kiyoko was waiting in the wings. They had agreed to leave it to her discretion when she’d asked to come in. Ryuu flashed her a thumbs up.

“Okay, Kiyoko-san?” he called.

“Fine, Ryuu,” she returned with her usual calm. Noya had often thought that between Ryuu’s force of personality and Kiyoko’s unflappable composure, any kid they had was going to be a goddamn pillar of the earth. 

The assistants disappeared and they were being counted in. “Hello everyone!” Ryuu greeted the camera. “We’ve got a very special episode for you tonight. We’re in the hot tub, we’ve got the family reunion in the audience.” The Shimizus, Noya had discovered, were not big into cheering. There was, however, polite applause. It felt like being at a golf game.

“It’s gonna be hot and wet,” Noya said with a grin. He didn’t have to look to know Kiyoko was rolling her eyes at them. 

“It’s gonna get steamy,” Ryuu said with an answering grin.

“My pores are gonna be _wide_ open by the end of this,” Noya said, reaching for his beer.

“Sometimes you just have to sweat it out, Noya-san.” Ryuu reached for his beer in turn. They clinked bottles. 

The show started in earnest and Kiyoko guided them through the usual lineup of weekly celebrity gossip. They began with some movie star who had rented out a private island for their birthday. The pictures to come out of the party were frankly outrageous.

“Why red?” Noya asked. “Why did everyone have to wear red?”

“Do you think it was on the invitation?” Ryuu suggested. “‘Don’t even show up unless you’re in red?’”

“You think they had backup clothes in storage?” Noya added. “‘If you don’t have red clothes, some will be provided for you?’”

“This is a little creepy right?” Ryuu propped his arms along the edge of the hot tub. “Like, with the all-red and the private island and whatever these pics are of them in like an assembly hall? Hey,” he tipped his head towards Noya. “How creepy can I call this without getting in trouble with legal?”

“We’re shooting to tape right? You should just go for it, man.” They made comments like this fairly often. If they were funny enough, they got left in. If not, the crew would edit around them in post. 

“Kiyoko-san!” Ryuu called.

“Kiyoko-san!” Noya echoed.

“Hm?”

“Can you give me a check on accusing someone of being a cult leader?” Ryuu’s grin was mischievous.

They watched her turn her head, from her vantage point finding the manager, sitting even further off-set. Turning back, she tilted her hand from side to side, in a so-so gesture.

“Okay it’s iffy,” Noya said.

“Well, in that case…” Ryuu arched his eyebrows knowingly. “All I’ll say is, I’ve lived a few years—”

“Almost three decades,” Noya agreed around another sip of beer.

“Almost three decades,” Ryuu continued. “And this is not... _not_ the most cult-like thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Who would make a better cult leader? You or me?” Noya asked, setting his beer aside. He tucked his hands behind his head in a habitual gesture and winced when he felt the chlorinated water begin to soak into his hair.

“I’m offended that you would think we would ever not be cult leaders together,” Ryuu said with a laugh. “Though,” and here he took a moment to consider. “If I’m being honest, you would. You always gave better speeches.”

“Aw.” Noya laughed. “That is so nice.”

“I mean every word I say,” Ryuu said easily. 

“This is why I love you best.” 

Filming in a hot tub was fun for about the first twenty minutes. After that came the slow, creeping dread that often accompanied someone realizing they’d made a mistake. 

“Hey Ryuu,” Noya groaned. “I hope you like that shirt I made ‘cause I don’t think it’s ever coming off.” He gave an experimental tug at his own wet shirt and frowned at the slow sucking sensation as it pulled away from his skin.

“I know what you mean,” Ryuu said. “All I can think about is how cool the ocean would feel right now.”

“Don’t bring up the ocean. Don’t tease me.”

“Sorry brother.” Ryuu sighed dramatically. “Maybe we should just think about hot things. Really lean into it.”

 _Azumane Asahi,_ Noya thought but didn’t say. “Saunas.”

“Stove tops.”

“Volcanoes.” Something caught the peripheral of Noya’s attention. Kiyoko was waving to them. Beside him, Ryuu noticeably perked up.

“Speaking of hot…” he said, grin stretching wide. “I think it’s time for our special guest!” Clearing his throat, he squared his shoulders more to the camera. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the jacuzzi a very special guest, someone we all know and love, and my own personal wife, Shimizu Kiyoko!”

More incongruously polite clapping from the Shimizus as Kiyoko appeared on camera. Ryuu held up his hand to her and she took it, easing herself into the hot tub. Her long white beach dress swirled along the surface of the water and Noya carefully pressed it under, hiding the shape of her legs. There were already going to be enough comments on Ryuu’s social media as it was.

“Kiyoko-san,” Ryuu said as she settled in. “What if I had to wear this shirt for the rest of my life? What if it never comes off?”

She eyed it thoughtfully before she spoke. “I’M RYUU, HE’S YUU” stood out cleanly, white brushstrokes against the red fabric, legible to the camera even with the slight distortion that came with it currently being suctioned to Ryuu’s torso. Noya had it on good authority (Saeko’s) that Kiyoko had a healthy appreciation for Ryuu’s body, so the whole wet-shirt-plastered-to-the-chest situation had to be doing _something_ for her, but as always she looked like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “I would just have to learn to live with it, I suppose,” she said. 

“Hey,” Noya chimed in. “Just ‘live with it?’ Kiyoko-san are you saying you don’t appreciate my art?”

She hummed. “When I kiss my husband I would prefer not to have to think about you.”

Noya’s mouth fell open in delighted shock. Ryuu whooped. "You tell ‘im, honey!” he crowed. 

There was something so satisfying about getting roasted by a nice, quiet person. Maybe because it meant they were feeling comfortable. This episode, Noya decided, was going very, very well. 

He texted Asahi after they were done filming, while they were getting cleaned up. The hotel had laundry services and they were gonna dry their shirts and wear them again right away because the Tanakoya bromance was just that strong. 

Some things about crushes didn’t seem to change with age, it was more about learning to manage them. It was about learning not to flood Asahi’s phone with everything he wanted to say, from _Filming in a jacuzzi fucking sucks,_ to _but if you came with me we could go running into the ocean after,_ to _what do you think about swimming on the first date,_ to _I had pop tarts for breakfast._ Noya had had to learn how to play the long game in life, in sports, in relationships. He still wasn’t very good at it but he did have enough check in his swing to only text Asahi about ten times in a row instead of the modest two million he actually wanted to. He figured the ten times was still justified anyway. If Asahi was going to like him at all for who he really was, the guy’d have to get used to it.

They sat shirtless in his hotel room, Noya sprawled comfortably on the bed, while Ryuu sat at attention in the desk chair. Kiyoko stood over him, reapplying his eyeliner. She had already done her own makeup and had just finished his eyebrows.

“What do you think about growing out your hair?” she asked. Noya listened with half an ear. “Not too long. Just a few inches.”

“You think I should?” Ryuu’s hand twitched, as though resisting the urge to run it over his buzz cut. 

“Only if you want to,” Kiyoko said. “I do think it would look good though.”

“Oh yeah?” His eyes closed, Ryuu gave her a crooked smile. “You think so?”

“I do. You have very strong bone structure.” 

_Bike-seat jawline,_ Noya’s brain supplied gleefully. He watched as Kiyoko took a step back, surveying her handiwork.

“Look at me,” she directed. Ryuu’s eyes opened, gazing up at her unblinking. Even from the angle he was lying at, Noya could tell when she smiled at him. Ryuu’s face always softened when it happened. “Close them again.” And she leaned in for a few adjustments.

“You really nailed the look tonight,” Noya said fifteen minutes later, when their t-shirts had been delivered, perfectly nice and dry. Ryuu was in the bathroom, changing into pants Kiyoko had instructed him to wear. Noya was lingering with her by the front door.

Kiyoko hummed in acknowledgement. “I especially wanted to get it right today.”

“Yeah, it’s a special occasion,” Noya agreed. 

He watched Kiyoko’s gaze cast itself to the floor, considering. “Saeko-niisan told you what my cousin said about him right?” Her voice was so soft, at first Noya didn’t think he’d heard it right.

When the words caught up to him, Noya scowled. “Yeah.”

“Ryuu’s not sensitive, I’m not worried about it hurting his feelings,” Kiyoko continued, gaze unmoving from its spot on the floor. “But he’s not the only one who’s allowed to take offense.”

Understanding, shock, and awe welled up inside him. “Kiyoko,” he breathed, eyes shining. “Is _that_ why you did his face up for tonight?”

“Is what why she did my face up?” Ryuu said, emerging from the bathroom. 

“Kiyoko wanted you to look super hot tonight so all her lady cousins eat their hearts out,” Noya informed him, grinning so wide his cheeks hurt. 

“Yeah?” Ryuu looked between the two of them, as if waiting for the joke. “Wait, really?”

“You’re the one who told me,” Kiyoko said, opening the door for them to go out. “Revenge is best served cold.”

Noya’s grin was hurting his face. “Is Ryuu looking hot your definition of cold?”

For the first time, Kiyoko had the grace to look mildly sheepish. As though Noya didn’t want to give her some kind of award for the level of petty she was displaying. “Showing Hana my husband is better than hers is cold.”

Ryuu’s face went bright red. “Ohhhh man I’m blushing.” He pressed his palms to the sides of his face. “Oh man. This is so uncool.” 

“Too much?” Kiyoko asked mildly. 

“You’re a king, Ryuu,” Noya added, though he knew what Ryuu was reacting to. For all his best friend had good self-esteem and a backbone of solid steel, there was a certain type of sincerity that always made him flustered. Even after all this time, it still took a sentence from Kiyoko to reduce him to a blushing mess.

Looking at the two of them, Noya had to admit, Kiyoko’s plan was gonna work. Kiyoko was wearing contacts tonight. She had found a classy high-neck tank top in red to complement Ryuu’s own shirt. They both wore black on the bottom, Kiyoko’s skirt flowing elegantly around her ankles, Ryuu’s jeans cut to make his legs look long and powerful. Between that and their ankle boots and matching eyeliner, they looked like a power couple. Kiyoko was classically beautiful and Ryuu had the whole bad-boy thing going on. They looked like they had better sex dog tired than most straight couples did when bringing their A-game. It made Noya proud.

He added this internal commentary to the enormous pile of things he shouldn’t be texting Asahi about. He’d gossip with Saeko about it when he saw her next. She couldn’t get away this weekend and it was _killing her_ to miss it.

Dinner was going to be super late but catering was serving up all kinds of fancy appetizers. Noya cheerfully snagged a few oysters for himself because one of Kiyoko’s aunties said they were amazing. Ryuu and Kiyoko had gotten pulled into conversation with Kiyoko’s grandparents so Noya found himself at a table with some of the other married-in relatives. They were generally louder and more approachable so Noya fit right in.

“Noya!” one of them called as he sat down. “Have a flower!” And he found himself being passed what appeared to be a centerpiece, made up of bright orange flowers. Glancing around he realized a lot of the other people at the table had them behind their ears.

“Is this allowed?” Even as he spoke, he plucked one out. There was some kind of styrofoam ball underneath that the stems had been poked into. Noya replaced the poky bit and put the flower behind his ear.

“I mean, what are they gonna do with them after we leave?” one of them asked. “They’re just gonna throw them out right?” The speaker was called Ghiro and they were easy to remember because they were half-Italian and had a mop of very curly brown hair that was constantly in their face. Noya had known he’d been accepted into the extended family the day Ghiro had taken him aside and told him their pronouns in a whisper.

“Touché.” 

“Besides. It’ll help us outsiders all keep track of each other.”

“That is important,” Noya agreed. He plucked one out for Ryuu too. “Can’t let these Shimizus get us surrounded.”

“Absolutely. I love this family but sometimes when you make a joke, you just want it to _land_ , you know?”

Noya barked a laugh. “God, _do I_.” The wall of politely blank stares could be a little much. “So you just gotta find the flower people and we’ll all laugh for each other?”

“You got it.”

 _The meaning behind the flowers_ went on the Don’t Text Asahi pile. He was, he reminded himself, almost ten texts deep already and the dude hadn’t responded yet. He took it from the Don’t Text Asahi pile and put it on the Tell Saeko-Niisan pile.

Some music was starting to play. There was going to be dancing. Noya turned his head, interest piqued, only to have it distracted by Ghiro passing him a beer. 

“So did you hear about the latest Hana-chan news?” they asked him.

Noya’s grin was sharp. “Tell me.”

“So apparently her husband’s birthday is coming up.”

“What was the guy’s name again?” Noya twisted the top off his beer as he spoke.

“I have deliberately forgotten it every time someone has told me.” 

“He sounds like a real charmer.”

“Oh yeah.” An eye poked out behind Ghiro’s mop of hair. It was startlingly sharp. Hana and her bitch-ass husband were _not_ on the list of people who knew Ghiro’s pronouns. “Anyway we’re getting what’s-his-face a book."

"What book?"

Ghiro’s one visible eye sparkled. “ _The Manual of Superorgasmic Fellatio and Cunnilingus_. With,” they continued pleasantly as Noya collapsed into laughter, “over 400 helpful photos and diagrams.”

“ _400!?”_

“400.” Ghiro’s teeth were sharp as they smiled. “I mean I don’t imagine one book could solve all your marital problems, but 400 pictures telling you to eat your wife out is not a bad place to start.”

“ _Holy shit,_ ” Noya gasped. “Holy shit, that is so _petty_ , I love it.”

“At least three people at this table were unfortunate enough to overhear the infamous ‘pussy eating’ argument at the last family reunion,” Ghiro said. “We can’t unhear it, but we can do this.”

That did it. Noya was texting Saeko _right goddamn now._ He pulled out his phone and got as far as sending her _omgomgomg_ four times in a row when another text came in.

From: Asahi  
 _Did you do those by hand?_ _  
__Noya, they look so good!!_ _  
__Your handwriting is amazing??_ _  
__...Is Tanaka wearing eyeliner?_

Oh right, the t-shirts. Noya’s grin stretched even further. He made himself complete his train of thought to Saeko before replying because leaving her with “omg” and no follow up would be ominous as hell.

From: Noya  
 _nii-san the drama here is amazing_ _  
__i feel alive_ _  
__i can’t wait to tell you about it_

There. That was that. He set about replying to Asahi.

From: Noya  
 _yah dude_ _  
__listen ryuu looks better in eyeliner than literally anyone else i've ever met_ _  
__idk what it is_ _  
__its unreal_

It was a good thing that the eyeliner suited Ryuu so well, Noya contemplated as he typed all this out. It was a very powerful weapon in Kiyoko’s arsenal. Maybe Noya could tell Asahi all about it when he came over next weekend. Anticipation bubbled in him.

From: Noya _  
__anyway what you up to tonight_

From: Asahi  
 _He does look good :)_ _  
__I'm out with Daichi and Suga right now._ _  
__We’re having dinner at Daichi’s parents’._

Noya remembered this from some of their other text conversations. They always left basketball to go to the Sawamura household. _Oh right cuz it’s sunday,_ he started to reply when the sound of clapping caught his attention. The dancing had picked up. Most of the younger relatives and a few of the cooler aunties were out there getting their groove on. He caught sight of something that made him grin.

Ryuu was breakdancing. 

Noya got out of his chair. 

He found Kiyoko easily, standing away from the circle a bit, but looking proud, so proud at the admiration on everyone’s faces as they watched Ryuu move. She smiled briefly at Noya as he approached and then her attention was immediately back on her husband. It was too cute. _They_ were too cute and Noya’s heart couldn’t take it. He picked up his phone again.

From: Noya  
 _yo_ _  
__yo_ _  
__asahi-san can i call you_ _  
__or would that be rude_ _  
__I wanna show you something_ _  
__but I don’t wanna get you in trouble with auntie and uncle_

Noya’d been doing good, he figured. He could come on too strong for five minutes to brag about his bestie. It would be his treat to himself.

From: Asahi  
 _Is everything okay?_

From: Noya  
 _yeahyeah everthing's cool_ _  
__just someone got ryuu dancing_ _  
__and like_ _  
__ryuu dancing is high ART_

From: Asahi  
 _Oh!_ _  
__I would like to see that._ _  
__Let me ask._

Here was the other thing about Asahi that made it so hard to keep it on the leash; the guy was just so goddamn _attentive_. He always acted like everything Noya had to say was cool and interesting. Just look at right now! Just look at how he was actually going to maybe take a video call while at Sunday dinner!

 _Sundays with the Sawamuras,_ Noya thought, grinning. He wondered if he could pitch it to the station as some kind of cooking show. 

From: Asahi  
 _They said it’s okay!_

Noya felt the happiness break over him in a wave. He hit the call button. As usual, the audio connected before the video did. "Hey Asahi-san!” he called even before the picture appeared.

"Noya! Hi!" Asahi’s face came into view. Oh whoops. Apparently “taking a call while at the Sawamura’s” meant “taking a call _with_ the Sawamura’s.” Noya turned on the charm.

“Oh, it’s Daichi-san’s parents!” He gave the best head nod he could with his phone in his hands, because his mama didn’t raise him in a barn. “Good evening.”

Introductions safely out of the way, he had to take a few steps around the circle to get a better shot. He managed it though, if the appreciation from the other end of the line was anything to go by. He let them feast their eyes for a moment or two before turning the camera around again.

"Whaddya think? Amazing right?"

"Really amazing." It was Daichi this time. Everyone was crowded into frame kinda like a family portrait. It was cute. "Asahi said you're at a family reunion?"

Noya grinned. "Yeah, Kiyoko's relatives are all here. We just wrapped up filming a little while ago? And we got catering from one of the restaurants on the boardwalk which was fu— fricking delicious." _No swearing,_ he chided himself good-naturedly.

"That sounds amazing," Suga said. He kinda had to lean in front of Daichi to get into frame better. “It sounds like you’re having a great time.”

“Sure am!” 

“We’re going to give you back to Asahi okay?” Daichi said.

“Sounds good!” and then told the Sawamura parents, “Nice to meet you!”

And then it was just him and Asahi. "We still good for next weekend?" Noya asked. He actively refrained from bringing up the first dozen items from the Don’t Text Asahi pile. _You'll get your chance._

"Still good," Asahi assured him with his usual warmth. "I just hope you have realistic expectations.” 

So, _that_ was ominous. Expectations? About hanging out? About what they’d get up to? Asahi didn’t think Noya was gonna try to stick his tongue down his throat, did he? “...About what?” Noya asked. 

“Ah well, I warned you, right? I’m no good at video games.”

“OH. _Oh._ ” _Whew._ “Yeah, no worries Asahi-san, I know what I signed up for.” Something else occurred to him. “Hey, what kinda souvenirs do you all want? I'll bring you something." 

“Oh, um.” Asah took a moment to do the thing again. The thing where he seriously considered every question that was asked to him, no matter what it was. It made Noya feel weirdly good. “I really like the flowers you were wearing?”

“Really?” This was amazing news. “You like that?” The married-in flowers. The extended-family flowers. _I fucking love these flowers._

“I do,” Asahi assured him. “They’re really pretty.”

Noya managed to retain at least three ounces of chill as they wrapped up their conversation and he was counting it as a win as he said, “Okay I’m gonna let you go, Asahi-san. See you next weekend!”

“Oh wait, Noya.”

“Hm?” 

“Are you going to come play basketball too? Daichi’s mom is joining us.” 

“Oh damn, no way.” Noya ran through and discarded several cheeky comments about meeting the family. “Then yeah, we’ll definitely be there.” He felt excited, almost wolfish.

“Noya,” Ghiro said, sliding up to him as he hung up. “Dance with me.”

“Absolutely,” Noya said easily, slipping his phone away. “What’s up?”

“The aunties have started passing around baby photos. Every childless person in a 3-kilometer-radius should run. And my spouse has been caught by Ojii-chan.”

“Oh no,” Noya groaned. “Yeah let’s do it.” They made for the dance floor at a power walk. “Hey on the bright side,” Noya considered. “I bet Ryuu could teach everyone the running man.”

“I love where your head’s at.”

The weekend was amazing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That oral sex manual, apparently, is real.


	9. Mario Kart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Noya works out to Feeling Myself by Nicki Minaj, I will not be taking criticism at this time.

From: Noya  
 _dude lmao_ _  
__guess what_

From: Asahi  
 _?_

From: Noya  
 _you remember the dude you told off the night we went out?_ _  
__idk if I told you but his name’s Hikoki he’s a gossip reporter_ _  
__anyway so APPARENTLY he called the studio and asked if I had a bodyguard now_

From: Asahi  
 _What??_

From: Noya  
 _RIGHT_ _  
__a BODYGUARD!_ _  
__i’m loving this_ _  
__maybe I should get a bodyguard_ _  
__i mean not like I need one but can you imagine_ _  
__how cool would that be_

From: Asahi  
 _If I’m honest you seem like someone who would be more likely to *be* a bodyguard than to have a bodyguard._

From: Noya  
 _you think so?_ _  
__you’re probably onto something_ _  
__damn I’d look so cool as a bodyguard_ _  
__i’d buy myself a cool leather jacket_

From: Asahi  
 _Shouldn’t you bill your employer for it?_ _  
__As a business expense?_

From: Noya  
 _STOP_

From: Asahi  
 _??_

From: Noya  
 _youre giving me blueballs_  
 _now all I wanna do is live a life where I can bill someone for my leather jackets_ _  
__damnit_ _  
__is it too late to switch careers?_

From: Asahi  
 _Does the studio not already cover the cost of wardrobe?_

From: Noya  
 _okay I mean yeah_ _  
__but that’s DIFFERENT_ _  
__that’s wardrobe_ _  
__that’s not the bodyguard fantasy_

From: Asahi  
 _Sorry. I will try to dial in more strongly to the bodyguard fantasy._ _  
__:P_

From: Noya  
 _yeah get up in here_ _  
__hey would you be my uh_ _  
__what’s the word_ _  
__like the person i’m guarding?_

From: Asahi  
 _Protectee? I think?_ _  
__That’s what they say on political dramas._

From: Noya  
 _well would you_ _  
__B)))_

From: Asahi  
 _What would I be doing in this world where I need a bodyguard?_ _  
__Physiotherapists aren’t really good political chess pieces._

From: Noya  
 _ooo maybe you only PRETEND to be a physio_ _  
__maybe you’re secretly like a long lost bastard of the emperor_ _  
__or maybe you ARE a physio but you saw something you shouldn’t have_ _  
__yannow?_

From: Asahi  
 _I like the long lost heir of the emperor one. :)_ _  
__It sounds more interesting._ _  
__Oh, my break is up, excuse me._

  * -



From: Nii-san  
 _Sup baby bro guess who is OVER their depression~ from missing ur fancy weekend getawayyyyyyy~~_ _  
__< (￣︶￣)>_

From: Noya  
 _could that be Saeko-niisan???_

From: Nii-san  
 _\\(★ω★)/  
bitchesssssss_

From: Noya  
 _Tell me more_

From: Nii-san  
 _While you were off at the BEACH_ _  
__Having a BORING ASS TIME_ _  
__*NOT* GETTING ANY_ _  
__UR GIRL WAS GETTING ANY_ _  
__By which I mean I got a dude’s number lol_

From: Noya  
 _HELL YEAH NII-SAN_ _  
__What’s he look like_ _  
__How hot we talking_ _  
__Must be pretty hot if ur this excited_

From: Nii-san  
 _blonde_ _  
__legs that don’t quit_ _  
__good boy type needs corrupting you know the drill_ _  
__also can you tell ryuu to unblock me_

  * -



From: Noya  
 _did you block your sister?_

From: The platonic love of my life  
 _UH YEAH_ _  
__feel like I made it pretty clear what would happen if she kept texting me about her sexcapades_

From: Noya  
 _k well I did my part_ _  
__she says she hasn’t even corrupted the guy yet anyway sooo..._

From: The platonic love of my life  
 _I DON’T WANNA KNOW_

From: Noya  
 _also_ _do you have my copy of mario kart_

From: The platonic love of my life _  
_ _@Kiyoko do we have mario kart_

From: Shimizu Kiyoko, Praise Be Unto Her Name  
 _I don’t think so._ _  
__And to be fair to your sister Ryuu, she texted *me* you just happened to be the one checking my phone._ _  
__I unblocked her just now, I’ll text her and let know._

From: Noya  
 _very bueno_

\- -

From: Asahi  
 _Hello!_

From: Noya  
 _Whaddup whaddup!!_

From: Asahi  
 _I found a short documentary on bodyguards!_ _  
_ _Specifically female bodyguards in China._ _  
_ _But still relevant! And interesting!_ _  
_ _One of them even talks about how important it is to wear leather?_ _  
_ _ >open link _

From: Noya  
 _this is_ _  
_ _EXACTLY_ _  
_ _what I wanted to see_ _  
_ _you are the fucking best_

\- -

From: Yuu  
 _have you seen my copy of mario kart_

From: Little bro  
 _what’ll you give me for it_

From: Yuu  
 _nothing give it back_

from: Little bro  
 _that’s not how you negotiate a hostage situation_

From: Yuu  
 _wtf_ _  
_ _why is this a hostage situation_ _  
_ _it’s MY game_

From: Little bro  
 _hmm_ _I suddenly don’t have it_ _  
_ _in fact I’ve never even heard of mario kart_ _  
_ _what’s a video game_

From: Yuu  
 _I’m coming over in one hour and if you’re not home I’m breaking in_

  * -



Noya wasn’t nervous in the hours leading up to Asahi coming over. Nervousness had never been his style. Excitement? Definitely. Anticipation? Sure. Nervousness? Never heard of it.

After his usual work-out he’d arrived home freshly showered, hair ungelled in favor of keeping a hat on against the spring chill. Flinging himself down on the couch he grabbed the remote and found something on the tv. Asahi would be here soon. 

Noya wasn’t the cleanest person he knew, but having an important guest come over had motivated him. He hadn’t done anything serious, but the floors were clean and the bathroom was clean and trash was freshly emptied.

At 3:55 p.m. the intercom rang. 

_Ushiwaka’s House of Pain,_ he politely did not say. “Heyyy Asahi-san," he said instead. 

“Hello Noya.” He could hear the smile even through the speaker.

“Come on up!” And he pressed the button to let him in.

“Welcome, welcome,” Noya said, as Asahi entered his apartment. “Coat can go in the closet there. Oh sweet, what’s this?” He took the 6-pack of bottles from Asahi’s hands and read the label.

“Plum sake,” Asahi said, taking off his shoes. “My sister buys it from a brewery near Mt. Fuji.”

“Oh damn, no way.” Noya examined the design with admiration. “Lemme crack this open.” He popped into the kitchen while Asahi hung his coat. As he twisted the bottle tops off, one then the other, he could hear Asahi take his place in the doorway of the kitchen.

There was almost a beat of silence. But Noya’s brain was working overtime.

“Hey, you know who Ushiwaka is, right?” Turning, he handed Asahi one of the bottles. 

Asahi’s eyebrows went up. “The volleyball player?”

“Yeah. Do you think he’s into the leather scene?” he asked because segues were for chumps.

Asahi blinked at him slowly, as if trying to figure out where this could have _possibly_ come from. “Were you… thinking about this before I got here?” 

“Were you _not?_ ” He took a sip of the sake. It was delicious.

Asahi was trying not to smile. “This must be really weighing on you.” 

“ _Totally_ weighing.” 

“Well in that case.” Asahi’s focus turned inward, and there it was again. Even the stupidest topic Noya could raise, given his full consideration. “The leather scene you said?”

“Yeah! Like, vanilla has to be beneath him, right?”

“He would look good in one of those masks…” Asahi said thoughtfully. “Ah, I mean, it would suit him.”

“You’re so right.” Noya moved past him out of the kitchen into the living room. "Ooh, what about one of those masks with the spikes! You know what I’m talking about?” He turned on the Wii and picked up a controller.

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” Asahi agreed. He settled down next to Noya, carefully taking one of the coasters from their (often ignored) box on the coffee table and setting his drink down on it.

“Right?” Noya handed Asahi the controller and then reached for his own sake again. “Did I say thanks for bringing this already? It’s good as hell.” Then all at once he remembered. “Wait, shit I have your stuff too! Wait here.” 

He’d left the souvenirs for Asahi and his friends lying on the desk in his room. Everyone else had gotten theirs already. True to his promise to Asahi, he’d managed to track down long strings of flowers, sold as wall hangings. It had taken some doing but some of the crew had gone with him and it had been fun. 

“Check it out,” he said, bringing the long, thin boxes into the living room. Each box was about a foot long, black and shiny. They each had a neatly rolled paper inside, explaining whatever the hell made these flowers so special, not that Noya had bothered to finish reading about it. He set the boxes on the coffee table and opened the first one, drawing the string of orange flowers out.

Asahi’s eyes went wide. “You got them!” 

"Yup." Noya grinned and handed them over. "Ask and you shall receive."

Asahi took the string in both hands and looked at them carefully. 

"You know," Noya said, grin wide. "You should try 'em like I had 'em. Behind your ears."

Asahi looked between him and the flowers, surprised. "Like how?" He lifted the string in front of his face, as if calculating how to wear it. 

"Here, let me." Noya tugged the flowers away and reached to settle them in Asahi's hair. He tucked each end of the string behind Asahi's ears, hyper-aware of the way Asahi had gone totally still. "Yeah," he breathed, letting his hands fall back. "That's the look, right there."

Asahi laughed, a soft huff escaping passed his lips. Despite the sounds of Mario Kart from the tv, the apartment had somehow gone quiet. Noya watched as Asahi's fingers skated over the flowers, settling them in place more firmly. He ducked his head slightly to do so but this just meant when he looked at Noya it was through his lashes. 

Noya was gonna have a _stroke._

"You look like…" He trailed off, wheels spinning in the mud, trying to figure out what to say that wasn't gonna be way too much of a come-on.

"A violinist who isn't evil?" Asahi asked. Noya startled. 

He threw his head back and laughed, loud and delighted. "Okay, I'm pretty sure what I  _ said _ was—"

"I remember," Asahi told him. "I'm just teasing.” Then his moment of confidence seemed to falter. “Is that okay?”

" _ Way _ more than okay,” Noya said. “I like it.” He was staring now, he knew it, leaning in, trying to look for any sign in Asahi's face to tell him whether he could push the moment.

Asahi, he realized, seemed to be almost vibrating. Noya’s eyes dropped to his hands. They were trembling.  _ He’s anxious.  _ The realization took Noya off guard. His eyes scrolled back up to Asahi’s face, and found his expression determined. The pause was loaded. "So, uh…" Asahi began finally. "If you bought me flowers does that mean I can take you to dinner?"

Noya inhaled sharply. " _Hell yeah_ _it does_." 

He was rewarded when Asahi smiled back, gentle and blinding as the sunrise. 

"I mean, I'll be real," Noya said, tucking one leg up on the couch. "I was  _ trying _ to take you to dinner the last time we went but Suga-san said I should pump the breaks."

"I know. He um, told me yesterday." Asahi looked briefly mortified but then it melted into something sheepish. "It was probably good he did that," he admitted. He gently pulled the flowers out of his hair and began to fiddle with them. "You're so cool. If I had known that was a date, I would have been really, really intimidated."

"You think I'm cool?" This was great news. Noya of course, thought of himself as cool, but having Asahi think it was a  _ definite  _ bonus. 

Asahi's smile turned almost fond. Now that his big question was out of the way, he seemed to be steadying. "Noya, you know you're cool."

"Well yeah, but anyone would want their crush to think they're cool yannow?" Noya pointed out reasonably.

"Ah." The blush was back. "Yeah."

"I think you're cool too you know," Noya added in case it wasn't obvious.

Asahi dropped his eyes, but he was smiling. "It's a façade."

"No way dude, I know these things. I know you're really cool."

The look Asahi gave him somehow managed to be gentle and just a little bit sassy. Noya _loved_ it. "Like how you know I'm really a vampire?"

"Yeah. Or maybe an angel. I'm still working on the theory." 

Okay, now Asahi was really smiling, even as the blush persisted. "Is it hard to tell those two apart?"

"I'm pretty sure I read a manga once where the main chick was half vampire, half angel?"

"You're _pretty_ sure?"

"The ending was unclear as hell."

"That does sound like the plot of something, doesn't it?" Asahi agreed, a little more comfortable now that the focus wasn't on his coolness. Noya kinda thought he should own it but hey, what did Noya know?

“So," he said, changing topics with his usual lack of grace. "Does this mean we can start flirting for real now?” 

“Right now?” Asahi’s eyes shone. “Right this minute?”

“You joke but I got some great pickup lines in the barrel.”

“Do you?” Asahi eyed him, maybe fighting a smile. “Let’s hear it.”

“You said you played wing spiker in high school?”

“Yeah.”

“You any good at laying pipe?”

Asahi blinked. “Yes?”

“Is that a question or a statement, Asahi-san?” This time Noya knew his grin was feral. 

Asahi smiled in return, cautious, but willing to play whatever game this was. His face was so open that Noya knew he had no idea the trap he was walking into. He watched those broad shoulders set. “Noya,” Asahi said. “I am _very good_ at laying pipe.”

Eyes still on Asahi’s face, predator’s smile stretching, Noya pulled out his phone. He pulled up the urban dictionary and typed something into the search bar, before handing it over. He had the pleasure of watching Asahi’s entire face go red, right to the roots of his hair. 

“Noyaaa,” he whined, as Noya laughed, hiding his face in his hands.

"Too much?” Noya asked, kindly discarding his comment about how being a libero made him good at taking pipe.

“A little too much,” Asahi confirmed. “But.” And he dropped his hands, clearing his throat as he did. “I’m having fun.” 

“Me too. So where we going for dinner?” 

“Let me think about it?” Asahi asked. His gaze was turning inward, as if already considering.

“Sure,” Noya agreed easily. “I mean, we also don’t gotta go _tonight,_ you know that right?”

“Are you not,” Asahi began slowly, “free tonight?” 

“Sure, I’m free. And very down for it,” he added, anticipating the next question.

“Okay…” Asahi’s smile remained in place but he hesitated. “I, uh, haven’t dated in a long time,” he admitted. “I’m probably rusty.”

“Hey whatever you are, it’s working for me,” Noya counted it as a win when Asahi flustered again. And, to smooth over some of the guy’s anxiety, he continued, “How about this; we get take-out and you pay and we call it a date.”

Asahi visibly relaxed. “That sounds great,” he said warmly.

Noya’s entire body was still awash with _hell yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah._ “Cool!”

“Very cool,” Asahi agreed.

“ _Totally_ cool.”

“Yes.”

They smiled at each other. Well. Asahi smiled. Noya was grinning like a loon, probably. The moment stretched and Noya turned bodily to face the t.v. before he could do something he totally shouldn’t, like kiss Asahi on his entire face. “So how about that Mario Kart?”

Asahi, exactly as he had promised, did not know how to play Mario Kart. He picked his way gingerly through every course and he even titled his controller as he played, like some kind of old man. Noya had started him with an old Gamecube controller because most people were more used to those if they hadn’t played a game since they were ten. Noya was tempted to let him continue this way because the ineffectual tilting was honestly adorable, but eventually he took pity on Asahi and swapped him for the remote that _actually_ had motion detection built in.

Also Asahi’d picked Toadette as his character. It was _adorable._

“Go to the left,” Noya said at one point. “Short-cut.” He was screenwatching, but they were in easy mode and he was ridiculously ahead of everyone else. 

“Oh, okay.” Asahi genuinely seemed to appreciate the instruction. It was a far cry from someone like Ryuu or Saeko who would have protested that they _already knew that_ even if that made them filthy liars.

“Oh, you got the banana peel. Use it.”

“Okay.” And Asahi brightened when it hit the car behind him, causing it to spin out.

“Good job!” Noya said happily. Asahi was successfully maintaining his middle-of-the-pack status. They’d turn him into a pro in _no_ time. 

The joy he got at Asahi’s progress wasn’t _quite_ enough to get him to hold back when, a few rounds later, he was pulling into second place and Noya had a red shell. He waited until Asahi was directly behind him (rookie mistake) and let it fly.

“You _hit me!_ ” Asahi sounded so genuinely offended that Noya threw back his head and laughed.

“All’s fair in love and war, Azumane!” He kept his gaze to the tv but his hand snaked out, ready to tug on Asahi’s hair to emphasize his point. It was down today.

Asahi caught his wrist.

Noya’s eyes widened. He turned.

“Nishinoya, were you about to _pull_ my _hair?_ ” But Asahi’s face seemed relatively relaxed. He seemed to be taking the _and now we flirt_ thing seriously. The blush was on his ears this time. _Cute._

“No?” Noya lied blatantly. He pushed on Asahi’s hold experimentally, conscious of the fact that if he pulled back, the gentle giant would definitely let him go. Asahi’s grip tightened. _Yeah, he’s strong,_ he thought, and his stomach curled, pleased. He met Asahi’s eyes again and continued to bluff outrageously. “Just ‘cause I have a crush on you, you think I wanna pull your hair?”

Asahi’s face went entirely red this time. He let his hand drop. Noya couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Asahi-san, you _know_ I have a crush on you! You just asked me out! I tried to ask _you_ out!” He tilted his head, curious. “Don’t you have a crush on me too?” At some point he realized that Asahi had had the presence of mind to pause the game. 

“I do,” Asahi admitted, meeting his gaze again. “It’s just… Well, I told you I was rusty, right?” Noya nodded. “And no one’s had a crush on me in a long time.”

“No way,” Noya decided. 

“It’s true!” Asahi protested.

“Dude why _wouldn’t_ anyone have a crush on you?” 

“I’m ...average?” Asahi tried.

“You really think that?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being average,” Asahi said defensively. Okay _sure_ , but Noya’s brain was trying to compute how objectively false it was that Asahi was average. At the _very least_ in size and weight class. And hot class. And everything class.

“Okay, but you’re _not_ average. You’re a total sweetheart. And really hot. And really nice? Like genuinely nice, not just passive. And _super_ easy to talk to. Like I’ll be real, I find most people easy to talk to but you are like, really, really easy to talk to. And uh.” Noya paused because Asahi was staring at him.

“You really think all that? About _me?_ ”

“Yeah of course! What, did I stutter or something?” Noya turned his body towards him again, grinning. “You said it yourself right? I always say what I think.”

“Ah, I did say that I guess…” Asahi’s gaze went unfocused, maybe a little lost in thought. “You’re very nice to me, Noya,” he said finally, whisper-soft. 

Noya was probably gonna get goosebumps. “You’re an easy guy to wanna be nice to,” he said. He kept his own volume normal ‘cause otherwise they were gonna dip into some tender territory and Asahi was probably feeling way too rusty to go there yet. Noya tried to think of something to lighten the mood.

Making his voice as mischievous as possible, Noya asked, “Hey. Can I say one more thing I like about you?”

Asahi’s gaze came up to study him. He looked caught between amused and wary. He nodded.

Noya had just enough check in his swing to ask, “You want me to say it like Noya would say it or you want me to say it like a normal person?”

“What’s...what’s the difference?”

Noya glanced over Asahi’s shoulder while he tried to come up with the phrasing. “Hm. A normal person probably would say you ‘work hard and stay humble’ or something like that.”

“And what would Noya say?” There was a spark of humor and even fondness on Asahi’s face.

“You have a big dick but you don’t brag about it.” He took great pride in the reaction that little gem earned him, Asahi covering his face not with his hands, but actually pulling up the collar of his shirt to do it. “Aw, too far?” he asked unrepentantly. Hey, he’d warned him.

“Have you been looking at my _dick?_ ” squeaked the Asahi-shaped t-shirt lump

“I mean not like _literally,_ ” Noya said, though he noted the lack of denial over the alleged size of said dick. “It’s more like the impression you give off? Like you could fuck someone up but you wouldn’t.”

“Okay I think you can stop talking please,” Asahi’s voice came through the t-shirt. 

“You got it.” Noya mimed zipping his lips even though he knew Asahi couldn’t see him. 

Asahi stayed in the t-shirt long enough that Noya was beginning to think he’d over-corrected too far from the mushy moment. When Asahi eventually re-emerged, the game face was back. _Oh shit,_ Noya thought. _I fucked up._

“Noya. I should tell you something.”

Noya blinked. _Definitely fucked up_. “What’s up?”

“I don’t find other people attractive very often. I don’t do ah. Casual sex. So if you’re um, wondering if we’re going to sleep together after the third date…” Asahi shook his head, apologetic. “I can’t.” 

Noya tilted his head, considering this. “...Are you asexual?” 

“Ah. Graysexual. Is the word I use.”

“Is that… mostly asexual?”

“Mostly,” Asahi confirmed. 

Noya could feel his brain buffering, trying to process. “So when you say you don’t find people attractive that often… how often is not often?” 

“Well…” Asahi rubbed at the back of his neck. “It’s happened three times? I guess.”

Noya was staring, he knew it. “ _Ever?_ ”

“Something like that? Maybe not three exactly. But. Uh. Yes.”

Noya didn’t feel attracted to people the way he was attracted to Asahi every day or even that often but, _still._ Every damn day he still saw strangers he found hot as fuck. _Three? EVER?_ Ever- _ever?_ “When was the last one? Last time you saw someone and thought ‘hey we should make out sometime.’” 

Asahi stared at him. Then dropped his eyes. Then did the whole looking-through-his-eyelashes-to-give-Noya-a-stroke thing. “Well. Um.” He cleared his throat. “You.”

Noya’s whole body felt too hot.

“I feel like I should say ‘thank you’ or something,” Noya said with a laugh, acutely aware that suddenly _he_ was the one flustered. Damn, what was so special about _him_ anyway? He reached for his usual easy confidence with some difficulty. “But uh, what you’re saying is I should keep the jokes about us fucking to a minimum?”

“I would appreciate that,” Asahi said, softly. His voice got deeper when he spoke quietly. There was something about it that elicited a very protective reaction from Noya. _Huh._

“Okay. And what else? We’ll just take the physical stuff really slow?”

“I would appreciate that too.” Asahi had turned to face him at some point. He had tucked his hands primly into his lap. 

Noya wouldn’t call himself “in-touch” with his emotions, exactly, but he knew himself. He knew what he wanted. He was willing to work hard to get it. And even if “taking it slow” wasn’t what he’d been planning to do, he really liked Asahi. So fucking _much_.

“Alright,” Noya said, with the brightest, most reassuring smile he could muster. Which was pretty damn bright and reassuring if he did say so himself. “We’ll go slow.”

Asahi looked at him in surprise. Tension left his body like water draining from a tub. “We will? You will? You’re okay with this?” 

“Sure I am. What, didn’t you hear me ranting about how special you are five minutes ago?”

Asahi rubbed the back of his neck again. “I heard,” he mumbled. 

“Good. ‘Cause I can always say it _again_ but I think I’ve embarrassed you enough for one day.” 

“No, it’s fine really.” But Noya was pretty sure he could see the relief in Asahi’s face that they weren’t going to go back to talking about his (probably huge) dick.

Then he gave a mental frown. _Bad dog,_ he told himself. _Down._

“But hey since we’re laying it all out there,” he said. “I’ll tell you what. If you do wanna start something, you just tell me, okay? ‘Cause I’m pretty much always gonna be down to kiss you, so you just pick when you’re ready. Or if you’re ready, I guess,” he added just to make sure.

Asahi took a deep breath in. Noya felt like he was breathing in with him. “I can do that,” Asahi told him.

“Good.” Noya glanced at the clock. “Hey, it’s after 6:00, wanna get that take-out?”

They ended up getting tonkatsu ramen. They ate it at Noya’s kitchen table while Noya made Asahi laugh with stories about the Tanakas, about his brother Yoite, about filming the show. Asahi talked about his clients, and fretted over a field trip he was helping Daichi chaperone next week. When it was time to go, they stood in the doorway smiling at each other until Asahi leaned down and wrapped him in one of the best damn hugs Noya had ever felt in his _life_. It left him warm and content, long after Asahi left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're really getting started now folks B)


	10. Accidental Meeting the Family

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer one!

Asahi left Noya’s apartment feeling exhausted in a good way. It was the feeling that he associated with having played and won a hard match of volleyball. Some slow-filling social resource had been drained by the courage it took to ask Noya out, but it had been _worth it._

Taking out his phone, he sent two texts, one to Suga and one to Daichi. Each text said the same thing.

From: Asahi  
 _He said yes!!_

Tucking his phone away, he shoved his hands in his pockets, grateful the night was at least still warm. He wanted to go for a run when he got home.

Just because he had never asked someone out before, didn’t mean he couldn’t do it, he had reminded himself as he had rung Noya’s doorbell. And Noya had already liked him. Suga had said so. When he had told Asahi "Noya tried to ask you out before," it was like a door had opened that Asahi hadn't even known existed. He had made himself hold onto that. Noya had tried to reach out and now Asahi was going to meet him halfway, no matter how much part of him thought it would be easier to wait for Noya to ask him again. Adults who wanted functional relationships met each other in the middle. 

_Azumane Asahi,_ he had thought sternly. _You have anxiety. You are not a child._

And it had paid off! Holy shit, it had _paid off_. He took a deep, decadent breath in, luxuriating in the relief that had been soaking his whole body for the past two hours. On impulse, he took out his phone again and navigated to Noya’s contact. Making a quick edit, he paused, looking at his phone screen, admiring his handiwork.

_Contact: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)_

His pulse fluttered in his throat. Tucking his phone away again, he jogged all the way to the train station.

Suga and Daichi were in front of the tv when he got home. The sound of him opening the door made them both turn to look at him, Suga sitting bolt upright as he did.

“There he is,” Daichi rumbled approvingly. “Man of the hour.” 

“Well done!” Suga chirped. “You did it!”

“Ah.” Asahi couldn’t hide his ridiculously pleased smile. “Thank you.”

“Get over here and tell us all about it.” Suga beckoned to him and Asahi plunked himself down on their sectional. “How did he take it?”

“Really well,” Asahi admitted, body feeling warm. “I think.” He swallowed. “I think he really likes me.”

“Well, of course he does,” Suga said, not unkindly. It reminded Asahi of something.

“Noya said you told him not to ask me out,” he pointed out.

Suga looked unrepentant. “Would you have been comfortable if he had? That quickly?”

“I wasn’t complaining.” Asahi offered a smile. He didn’t always appreciate Suga meddling but his friend was always protective when it counted. “Thank you.”

Suga smiled. “Any time, Beard-kun.” Shifting on the couch, he tucked his back against Daichi’s side so he could wiggle his toes under Asahi’s thigh. “Now give us those details.”

“Oh!” Before he could forget, Asahi reached into the bag Noya gave him. “These are for us. Our souvenirs from his trip.” He handed over the slender boxes.

“Flowers?” Daichi asked, looking over Suga’s shoulder as he opened the box. 

“Yes, he said all the relatives at the reunion had them too.” Asahi tucked a lock of hair behind his ear as he spoke, remembering where the flowers had sat.

“Does that make us relatives?” Suga’s smile was full of mischief. “Noya-san moves so quickly.”

“Well, he is meeting my mom tomorrow,” Daichi said lightly, lifting his own string of flowers from his box. “Maybe we all move fast.”

“We’re a family of go-getters,” Suga agreed. 

“What family is that?” Asahi asked. 

“The Azumane-Sawamura-Sugawaras, obviously,” Suga said. He held up his string of flowers, as if trying to determine which wall he would hang them on.

“It rolls right off the tongue,” Daichi agreed drily. “Should we put them on the fridge?”

“What about the pillar by the kitchen?”

“Azu-Sawa-wara,” Asahi said haltingly, trying to think. “Azu-Sa-wara?”

“Azu-Suga-mura?” Daichi offered.

“That one doesn’t sound bad,” Suga agreed. “What if we got a nameplate that said that? We could tack it to the door.”

“It would confuse the hell out of the neighbors, that’s for sure,” Daichi said.

“Don’t marry Noya too quickly, Asahi,” Suga said. “We have to practice being the Azu-Suga-muras for a while.”

“Suga, we’ve been on _one_ date!” Asahi protested. That alone was going to take him time to digest. “How can you be thinking about marriage already?”

“Is this whole conversation not about how we move fast in this family?”

Daichi cut in, practical as ever. “So you’re probably not gonna introduce him to my mom as your boyfriend just yet, I’m guessing.” He nudged Suga as he spoke. “Let me up, I’ll hang these.” 

“Oh no,” Asahi groaned, sinking back into his chair. “I didn’t think about that. What am I going to introduce him as?” 

“Why not ask him?” Daichi suggested. There was a rustling sound as he dug around in the junk drawer. 

Asahi took a breath in through the mouth and let it out through his nose. _Why not ask him,_ he repeated to himself, looking at the ceiling. The thought was surprisingly comforting.

Slipping his phone out of his pocket, his eyebrows jumped to see he had a text from Noya already. 

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) _  
__you get home okay?_

From: Asahi  
 _Yes! :)_

“Is that him?” Suga asked knowingly. 

“Yeah,” Asahi said softly, not looking up. 

From: Asahi  
 _I was wondering…_ _  
__When you meet my aunt tomorrow, how would you like me to introduce you?_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _why?_ _  
__you nervous about it?_

From: Asahi  
 _A little?_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _she’s not gonna be weird cuz I’m a guy right?_ _  
__I mean, look at her son_

From: Asahi  
 _Oh no, she’s not weird about it!_ _  
__She’s been really good to Daichi and Suga._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _comprendo_ _  
__tell you what_ _  
__I get you probably don’t wanna give her a buncha expectations when we just started_ _  
__as much as I usually like to blurt things out right away I have been told it is better an ounce of chill or two_ _  
__so I can live with us not saying anything yet_ _  
__unless she asks B)))_ _  
__then we’ll hit her with the news of our big gay romance_

Asahi took another breath. Right. It was okay. They could go with the flow. It was okay to go with the flow.

From: Asahi  
 _Thank you Noya._ _  
__That really makes me feel better._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _one hundo_ _  
__listen, I’m a pretty forward guy but I never want you to feel like I’m pressuring you, okay?_

“What’s he saying?” Suga asked.

Asahi hastily filtered out the more serious bits of the conversation. Those parts felt private. Only for him and Noya. “He says we have a big gay romance,” Asahi informed Suga instead. “Apparently.”

“Big talker.” Suga smirked. “Not bigger and gayer than me and Daichi.”

From: Asahi  
 _< 3 _  
_(Suga says we’re not as big and gay as him and Daichi.)_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _sounds like a challenge_ _  
__challenge accepted_

 _You would think of it that way,_ Asahi thought affectionately. “He says he’s accepted your challenge,” he said aloud.

“I accept his acceptance of my challenge. Now come on. I’m still not hearing those details.”

Noya texted him again later, as Asahi was getting into bed. 

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _hey  
_ _what are you wearing?_ _  
__not in a creepy way tho_ _  
__I wanna see your pjs!_

From: Asahi  
 _Only if you show me yours!!_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _can do B))_

From: Asahi  
 _> image attached_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _DAMN_ _  
__SO fucking cute_ _  
__k hold on gimme one second here_ _  
__> image attached_

Noya was wearing black shorts of some kind and a loose t-shirt that declared him to be “自由自在” —free and easy. He was sprawled out on his bed, his hair damp from his shower, fanning onto the pillow the slightest bit. He was holding the phone over his face, arms straight, and his full mouth was curved somewhere between a smirk and a fond smile. Asahi’s breath caught.

From: Asahi  
 _:O !_ _  
__:) :)_ _  
__You’re cuter, Noya._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _what cuter than you?_ _  
__false_

From: Asahi  
 _You are!!_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _asahi-san_ _you disagreeing with me already?_  
 _smdh that’s no way to start a relationship_ _  
__guess we’ll have to agree to disagree_

The pillow puffed against his cheek as Asahi shook his head. He couldn’t believe he’d just been at Noya’s house this afternoon. So much had changed. He was feeling jittery and buzzed and ready to sleep all at once.

From: Asahi  
 _I guess we will._ _  
__:P_ _  
__Good night Noya_.

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _good night!_

Rolling over onto his back, Asahi held up his phone, examining the picture Noya sent him again, allowing himself to pour over little details he hadn’t noticed on his first look. The way Noya’s hair feathered over his ears, the way the blue in his bangs looked almost green in the lamplight, the way the muscles in his arms stood out as he held his phone aloft… Nishinoya Yuu, Asahi thought, was an incredibly attractive man.

Asahi had noticed that Noya was attractive the moment he’d first seen him on tv. At the time though, when he’d still been a stranger, it had felt more like noticing a feature, a characteristic. It had seemed like a given—Noya appeared on camera for a living so of course it was his job to look good. When he’d first seen Noya in person on the basketball court, when Noya had still been charismatic and handsome then, it had just served as proof of the things that made Noya so good at his job. It had only been in that week when Noya had been injured, when he’d talked to Asahi almost every day, that Asahi had gotten to bask in Noya’s charm and friendliness firsthand. And Noya helping him outside the restaurant… Asahi remembered thinking, somewhere in the haze of his embarrassment that night, _Noya is very kind._ And so, the scales had tipped. Noya had gone from someone who was attractive to people in general, to someone who was attractive to _him._

Asahi shifted uncomfortably on the bed. 

If he looked at this picture it was almost like… It was like he could imagine… That this was what Noya would look like if Asahi was over him. This was what Noya would look like, reaching up to bury his fingers in Asahi’s hair, or to wrap his arms around Asahi’s neck. Asahi swallowed. What did Noya’s skin feel like after a shower? How did his sheets smell? His hair? Would he be damp against the tip of Asahi’s nose as Asahi pressed his face into his neck? 

_Damnit. I forgot to go for a run._ He let the hand holding the phone drop loosely to his side and ground the heel of his other hand against his eye. _Tomorrow,_ he promised himself. _First thing._

Daichi was up the next morning when Asahi roused himself. Suga, as usual, was still sleeping. “Morning,” Daichi called quietly as Asahi made his way into the kitchen. Half an apple sat on the cutting board, waiting for him. Daichi was already eating the other half.

“Thank you.” Asahi plucked his half and began to eat. Neither of them believed in running on an empty stomach. 

“So, first time going out with a guy,” Daichi said as they slipped their shoes on. “How’s that feel?”

“It doesn’t feel real yet,” Asahi admitted. The next words needed time to come and he turned them over carefully. Daichi was patient with him. “I. I don’t know where this came from,” Asahi said finally. “I don’t know where _he_ came from.”

“I mean, technically, we _do_ know that. He called me _,_ ” Daichi offered with a smile. “Or well. His studio did.”

“Yes....” he agreed uncertainly.

“But it’s different right?” Daichi said, hearing what Asahi wasn’t saying, in that easy way he had. “When you really, really like someone.”

“Yeah.” Asahi’s eyes dropped to his feet, contemplating. “It’s really different.” He hesitated over the next part, but decided, to hell with it. Daichi had known him too long. “I’m nervous,” he admitted.

“About anything in particular?” Daichi opened the door as he spoke.

 _About a_ lot _in particular,_ Asahi thought. He marshalled his thoughts, following Daichi out towards the elevator. “I barely know him.”

Daichi hummed, thinking. “You felt like you knew enough to ask him out,” he said as they came to stand in front of the doors. The hallway was mercifully empty.

“Yeah but it’s weird. To see someone and want... Or to not want them to…” He slowed, trying to choose his words.

“To not want them to get away?” Daichi offered.

Asahi felt his shoulders slump with the relief of being understood. “Yes.”

“Well, look at it this way,” Daichi suggested. “You told him you’re not gonna be ready to get physical for a while, right?”

“Right.”

“So basically, all you guys have committed to doing is getting to know each other better, something you’ve both agreed would be worthwhile. You asked for what you wanted, and he gave it to you. It’s like…” Daichi’s eyes drifted to the ceiling of the elevator as he thought. “It’s like asking him to save you a seat. You want the chance to sit with him and talk for awhile.”

“You make it sound so casual.”

“Right, that’s the paradox for you, isn’t it?” Daichi’s smile was both knowing and kind. “You don’t do casual, but you need it to be low stakes.”

“Right,” Asahi agreed, feeling guilty.

“Asahi,” Daichi said firmly. “That’s okay. We’re all a set of contradictions in our own way. I mean, look at Suga. Total sweetheart _and_ total smartass.”

Asahi snorted. “Well, that’s true.”

“Of course it is.” Daichi was watching him and Asahi knew he was looking for all the tells. The lift of his head, the smoothed slope of his shoulders, the things that would tell Daichi that Asahi was calm. Daichi must’ve seen what he was looking for because he smiled and said, “Good talk?” 

“Good talk,” Asahi confirmed.

“Good. Hey what do you think about doing Heartbreak Hill today?”

By the time it was almost time to leave for the park, Asahi was feeling better. He was even feeling good enough that the ridiculous exercise of trying to pick what workout gear to wear was kind of fun. What workout gear! It wasn't supposed to be flattering to begin with. Still, he had always liked putting outfits together, and now that he had someone to look good for… He felt like a giddy teenager as he laid out his options. 

_No old t-shirts,_ he decided. _Nothing I got for free._ The _“Ask me about my type”_ shirt would have been flirty but it also took way too much confidence to pull off in front of his aunt. 

Asahi was, at this point in his life, used to navigating the world as someone tall and fit. He knew it was too easy to attract unwanted attention that way (being over 180cm meant that people didn’t get pushy very often but for him even a once-over could be uncomfortable). But he also knew how to look nice without showing off his body.

Inspiration struck. He reached for a black compression tank-top, and pulled it over his head. Then, digging for the last hanger in his closet, he pulled out an incongruous red tank. Suga called it The Douchebag Shirt and it wasn’t Asahi’s. He could not for the life of him remember how it had gotten mixed in with his clothes. It was almost maroon in color and had deep armholes that blatantly showed off the line of the wearer’s ribs, all the way down to the hips. Asahi had never worn it but he had also had never thrown it out, some inner voice fretting that one day they might all magically remember whose it was and then return it to the owner. With a silent pray of thanks to said mystery person, he put it on. Turning, he examined himself in the mirror.

This was… Okay, this was different. But it was a good different. He could do this. The Douchebag Shirt hung loosely, obscuring the firm lines that the compression tank would have put on display. Likewise, the tank-top kept the muscles of his torso ( _latissimus dorsi, abdominal oblique,_ his mind supplied) firmly hidden. He looked fit and strong without looking like he was showing off. Perfect.

The pants were easy after that, black tights and basketball shorts. It was just warm enough that day that the way baring his arms would be justified.

“Asahi!” Daichi called from the living room. “We’re going!”

“Coming!” Asahi took a moment to pat his other pants down for his wallet, keys and phone. Picking up the latter, he smiled to see he had a text from Noya.

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _hey what kind of bubble tea you all want_ _  
__my treat_

From: Asahi  
 _Oh, that’s so nice!_ _  
__It’s not necessary though. Please don’t feel obligated._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _yeah yeah yeah_ _  
__I want to you big softie_ _  
__fork over your orders_

“Noya wants to know what kind of bubble tea everyone wants?” Surprise made it come out as a question as Asahi joined his friends at the doorway.

“Yeah?” Daichi glanced up. “He’s paying?”

“I told him he didn’t have to but...”

“Something tells me that Noya doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do anyway,” Suga said. “Or _any_ _one_ he doesn’t want to do.” He smirked. “Nice shirt by the way.”

“Suga...” Asahi frowned through a blush.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Kou,” Daichi said with a grin. “I’ll have a milk tea. Half-sweet.”

“I want a brown sugar milk tea. Full sweetness, please and thank you,” Suga told him. Asahi typed this all down dutifully, making sure to include his own order. 

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _excellente_ _  
__what about Mama Sawamura_ _  
__what’s she gonna want_

“He’s asking about Auntie’s order too,” Asahi said as they made their way out the door. 

“Oh that’s really nice.” Daichi considered. “She doesn’t really like sweet stuff. Probably just a regular green tea is fine.” Asahi relayed this information.

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _can and will do_ _  
__see you soon!_

The sun had turned the day just this side of too warm when they arrived at the park. A group of teenagers had already claimed one half of the basketball courts so Asahi, Daichi, and Suga hurried to claim the other half. If it got even busier, they could shrink down to half-court, like they’d done in the past. But today, with so many people, Asahi honestly hoped they wouldn’t have to.

“Oh hey,” Daichi said, as he set his bag down. “I think I see my mom.” He frowned and Asahi turned to see what had caused it. “Wait who’s that with her? Isn’t that—”

“My mom?” Asahi finished weakly. Because it was. Mom was striding towards them, walking pole in each hand, right beside Aunt Aikiko. 

_Oh no._ He closed his eyes. _This isn’t happening._

A finger jabbed his ribs, making him jump.

“Breath, Asahi,” Suga said.

“Surprise!” Mom said breezily as she and Aunt Aikiko pulled up. “I ran into Aikiko on my walk and we thought it would be too fun to come and surprise you all.”

“It’s good to see you, Auntie,” Daichi said with his usual poise and calm. “Did my mom tell you we’re meeting other people here too?”

“She did! Your little basketball club.” Mom smiled knowingly. “And she said if I play with you, the numbers would be even.”

" _Mom,_ ” Asahi protested weakly. “You don’t even play basketball.”

“Do you doubt your mother?”

 _Yes,_ Asahi thought. Outwardly he made a noise that was embarrassingly close to a whine.

“We don’t have to play an actual game,” pointed out Suga, the traitor. “We could play bump. Or HORSE.”

“I don’t plan on playing the whole time,” Mom assured him. She had that teasing look in her eye. She had always had fun embarrassing her children in public. “I can just do my laps around the park once I get tired.” 

This presented a blessed opportunity to change the subject. “Have the poles been working like I told you?” 

“They _have_ _!_ You know I thought the neighborhood walking club was just exaggerating, but—”

“Asahi-san!” A voice called.

Asahi swallowed and turned around. “Noya!”

Noya was striding towards them, a cardboard drink carrier in one hand, his own bubble tea in the other. His hair was ungelled today, flopping loosely over a purple workout headband. He had a matching sweatband on each wrist and he simultaneously looked rakish and cute. Ryuu and Kiyoko walked with him, each with their own drinks. “Heyo,” Noya said as they got closer. “Did I miss someone? We’re one drink short.”

“Sorry,” Asahi said. “I didn’t know my mom was coming or I would have told you.” The thought of Noya meeting his mom _already…_ His palms were starting to sweat.

“Yeah?” Noya’s eyes honed in on the woman in question. It was a little funny to see his own mother a solid eight centimeters above the man he was dating (dating!!). Then again, they had always been a tall family. “It’s nice to meet you, Azumane-san.” He gave a little bow, which Ryuu and Kiyoko copied. Popping back up, Noya looked to Aunt Aikiko with a winning smile. “And Sawamura-san! Good to see you again.” 

“Mom,” Asahi cleared his throat. “This is Nishnoya Yuu, Tanaka Ryuu, and Shimizu Kiyoko. They host that tv show, remember the one Daichi did the interview for?”

“Ah yes I remember you sent me the clip.” Mom eyed the three newcomers curiously. “And the three of you play basketball too?” 

“Ryuu and I just play casually,” Noya said. As he spoke he started handing out everyone’s drinks. “But Kiyoko was on her high school’s team.”

“Is that so?” Aunt Aikiko looked at Kiyoko appreciatively. “So was I!”

“What position did you play, Sawamura-san?” Kiyoko adjusted her glasses as she spoke.

“I was small forward. And yourself?”

“Shooting guard.” Kiyoko turned politely. “Did you play sports in high school, Azumane-san?”

His mom smiled warmly. “I was a skier.”

“Oh no way!” Noya enthused. “That’s cool as hel—heck.” Out of the corner of his eye, Asahi saw Suga and Daichi smirking. “By the way, did you want a drink Azumane-san?” Noya continued, pressing Asahi’s own into his hand. “I can run and grab you one.”

“That’s more than okay, Nishinoya-kun,” Mom assured him. “I’ll share with Asahi.”

Asahi held his drink out to her. “Try it first and see if you like it,” he murmured. She took a tentative sip.

“It’s a light flavor,” she said approvingly. “What is that?”

“Lychee.” 

“So tell us,” Aunt Aikiko said when they were all settled on the courtside benches to sip their drinks. “How does one become a tv host?”

“There was a casting call at the station,” Ryuu said. He was half hanging off the end of the bench so Kiyoko would have space to fully sit. “But it wasn’t like open auditions or anything. You had to be nominated.”

“Yeah,” Noya agreed. “Ryuu and I had been doing this campus radio for… what, like two and a half years at that point? And my prof had connections at the station so she put our names up.”

“What were your majors in university?”

“Hotel and leisure management,” Ryuu said. “My folks have a restaurant. I was planning to graduate and help ‘em out.”

“Mine was communications, if you can believe it,” Noya said with a wry grin. “I was just in college to play volleyball. Never thought it’d matter what I actually studied.” He took a long, thoughtful slurp of his boba. “Life comes at you fast.” 

“So true, sensei,” Ryuu agreed solemnly. 

“Asahi,” Mom said suddenly distracted. “Why are you wearing your hair like that? You should let me braid it for you.”

“I don’t like it braided,” Asahi protested, hand coming up to stop her from mussing it up where it draped, half-down over his shoulders. “It catches.”

Mom clucked her tongue disapprovingly. “Young men these days make such strange fashion choices.” 

“ _Mom,_ ” Asahi hissed. He knew she didn’t mean it, but he felt the familiar stab of judgement. And couldn’t she at least try to read the room? Noya with his blue bangs and Ryuu with his vibrant neck tattoo had to be feeling looked down on too.

He shouldn’t have worried.

“You know, Asahi-san,” Noya cut in with a grin. “If you just went a little harder on that weird fashion, you’d be perfect for our job.”

“Oh for sure _,_ ” Ryuu agreed. “I bet our wardrobe department would _love_ to get their hands on you.” He took a pull off his straw, chewing tapioca as he spoke. “You know those sweet combat boots they bought ‘cuz they thought they’d fit me?” he said to Noya. “Can’t you see this guy in them?”

“Oh you’re so right,” Noya breathed. Asahi got to watch three pairs of eyes on him in unison as Noya, Ryuu, and Kiyoko turned as one to look. “Come on, Azumane-san,” Noya continued impishly. “Wouldn’t you want to see what a professional wardrobe department would do with your son?”

Mom blinked at him slowly. “Well of course, fashion is part of your job,” she agreed. To Asahi’s relief she sounded like she was genuinely considering Noya’s perspective. “You would certainly be the expert here.” She eyed Noya as though she was trying to decide what to make of him. “My son is a big fan of your show, you know.”

“What a coincidence.” Noya’s grin was that mix of wicked, disarming, and honest that typified him so well. “I’m a big fan of your son.”

Asahi’s face _flamed._ Daichi let out a bark of laughter. Suga was cackling behind his hand. Aunt Aikiko and Mom were looking between the two of them.

“You went over to Noya-kun’s house yesterday, didn’t you, Asahi?” Mom began.

“Okay, we should play basketball soon please!” Asahi said, standing up abruptly. Laughing, Daichi got up after him. The rest of their little group followed, looking way too knowing. Noya bumped his shoulder against Asahi’s side and looked up at him with a cocked eyebrow.

“You look really hot in that shirt,” he said, tone casual.

 _Mercy,_ Asahi thought faintly. “Nice headband,” he managed.

“Thanks!” Noya was standing way too close but Asahi couldn’t bring himself to mind. Even if they were standing in full view of his mom. “I’m doing an homage to 80’s workout videos or some sh—thing.” 

Asahi’s eyes crinkled fondly. “Some-shing?” he repeated.

“ _Listen._ I’m trying to make a good impression here.” Noya poked him in the side.

“You always make a good impression Noya,” Asahi said, softer than he meant to. But he had the pleasure of watching Noya’s eyes widen and then narrow. 

“Don’t fluster me, Asahi-san,” he mumbled. “It’s gonna mess up my reputation.” Asahi giggled.

“Everyone wanna circle up?” Daichi called. “We should do some stretches.” Everyone into dutiful formation around him. “Really rotate those shoulders, come on Mom, don’t let me see you slacking!”

“Grandma didn’t raise a slacker, right Mom?” Suga chimed in.

“Koushi why do you always know how to guilt me?” Aunt Aikiko demanded. “It’s not natural.” Asahi noticed she started to move her shoulders with more feeling.

“It’s my superpower,” Suga said cheerfully.

“You should have Asahi make you some exercises, Ai-kun,” Mom said. “The ones he gave me for my ankle really helped.”

“Yeah, has Asahi made you any stretches, Mom?” Suga’s voice was way too innocent.

“I’m being press-ganged,” Aunt Aikiko muttered. “See if I ever come back here.”

“You in charge of keeping everyone loose in your family, Asahi-san?” Noya asked. 

“I’m just happy to help,” Asahi said. “Though to be honest, I don’t think they all know what a physiotherapist does.”

“Yeah? What happens?”

“Last year my cousin wanted to do a home birth for her baby and my aunt tried to convince me to help.”

“What?” Noya straightened up to look at him properly. “Why the fu—hell—shi— Ughhh.” 

“Take your time,” Suga called, grinning.

 _Cute,_ Asahi thought helplessly. 

“Yeah yeah,” Noya said. “Anyway why would anyone ask you about childbirth?”

“I don’t know,” Asahi said, leaning the other way to complete the stretch. “You’d have to ask my aunt.”

“Your aunt has a… unique perspective on life,” Mom said. “We cannot know how she thinks, we can only love her.”

“There’s one in every family,” Suga agreed.

“Definitely more than a few of those in _my_ family,” Ryuu put in.

They played bump, a drill game, to start. Aunt Aikiko still had a lot of her technical skill from her team years, but Mom really didn’t know what she was doing. Even through a twinge of secondhand embarrassment, Asahi was glad to see everyone else being nice to her, no one knocking her ball out of the way as she was trying to catch the rebound on her free-throw. Aunt Aikiko wasn’t so lucky.

“No mercy on a first-timer I see!” she called over her shoulder as Daichi knocked her ball into the fence.

“It’s called ‘bump’ for a reason, Mom!” he called back, laying up a perfect shot. 

“Mom, give me a head’s up next time,” Suga said from his place in line behind Daichi. “And I’ll trip him for you.”

“Can’t believe you always take _her_ side,” Daichi muttered, jogging off to retrieve the ball.

“You should always agree with your mother-in-law!” Suga called after him.

“Those two really are married huh?” Noya laughed from behind Asahi. 

“What do you think babe?” Ryuu said from the back of the line. “You think I should agree with your mother more?”

“Please don’t,” Kiyoko said. Asahi heard the sounds of Ryuu and Noya cackling.

Wearing the heart on the sleeve was an Azumane family trait unfortunately. After about twenty minutes, Asahi could tell his mom was getting truly frustrated. Shooting a free throw was a lot harder than most people realized, and she was missing so many that she wasn’t having fun. 

Fortunately, this was something Asahi knew how to deal with. He dropped out of line. 

He made an apologetic face in response to the questioning noise Noya made and went to stand under the rim. Daichi and Suga, who had seen him intervene with his mom’s moods before, remained silent. 

“And just what are you up to?” Mom asked. Asahi shrugged. If he was better with words he would’ve made a joke to lighten the mood. As it was, he just waited until she accepted he wasn’t going away. She frowned at him suspiciously and took her shot. 

It bounced from too high off the backboard. Asahi jumped and tipped it in with his fingertips on the way down, swishing through the hoop. 

There was a smattering for applause from the lineup. “Heyo!” came Noya’s voice. 

“Dang son!” Ryuu called. “Do that again!”

Asahi looked to his mom. “You want to try again?” he asked gently.

She nodded and he was relieved to see a determined glint in her eye. Maybe this could still be fun for her. He passed her the ball, giving it one bounce along the rubber court. She held it up, judged her shot and tossed.

 _Airball!_ Asahi thought, a thrill going through him. It was falling short. He took two steps forward and swung his arms back behind him like he would in volleyball when he was going up for a spike. His timing was on. _Yes_ , his mind hissed, satisfied. _Yes!_ Two feet in the air, he grabbed the ball with both hands and slammed it into the net behind him. 

Noya stuck two fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistled. Asahi’s body flushed with pride.

“That was an alley-oop, Azumane-san,” he heard Kiyoko explaining gently. “Well done.” 

“See?” Mom said with something like sass returning to her voice. “I told you I could keep up with the kids.” 

“We should play king of the court!” Noya said suddenly. “Two-on-two teams.”

“What is that?” Suga asked.

“Just like in volleyball. You switch out every time the other team gets a point.” 

“It’s a lot of fun,” Kiyoko agreed. “I think we’d enjoy it.”

Daichi and Suga looked at each other, before turning to Asahi. “Sounds good to me,” Daichi said. “How do we want to pair up?” 

“I call my favorite son,” Aunt Aikiko said decisively. Daichi sighed.

“The worst part is, we all already know she doesn’t mean me,” he said to the group at large.

“Your mother has good taste, Daichi,” Suga said airily and he stepped to stand next to her. 

“Azumane-san!” Noya said, startling absolutely everyone. “Wanna pair up with me?”

Asahi’s blood ran hot and cold. He watched his mother regard Noya with a curious eye. “Are you sure?” she asked. 

Noya’s grin was wolfish. “Absolutely.” 

“I guess that puts you with me, Ace,” Daichi said with a dramatic sigh. “The rejects.” He slung an elbow up onto Asahi’s shoulder. Asahi shifted to accommodate his weight. 

“Abandoned,” he agreed mournfully. It was easier to joke around with Daichi’s presence steadying him.

“Can it, you giant man-children,” Suga said. “You can live without my undivided attention for one game.”

“The question is, can you live without _my_ undivided attention?” Noya asked, staring at Asahi as he spoke.

Asahi could hear Daichi smother a laugh in the back of his throat. “I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” he said, knocking his weight against Asahi’s shoulder.

“I guess so,” Asahi said with as much dignity as he could muster while his mom and aunt _and_ Noya were looking at him.

Kiyoko and Ryuu quickly proved themselves the team to beat. Kiyoko could score easily from anywhere on her half of the court so Asahi and Daichi’s height advantage didn’t do them much good. And if Ryuu got past their defenses, he could dunk. 

But if Asahi could beat him into the key, he had the leg up. Daichi passed to him and he took his aim, quick and calculated, lobbing the shot over Ryuu’s outstretched hand into the net.

“Nice, Asahi!” Daichi called. Asahi grinned at him.

“Switch!” Suga called, and Noya and Mom took the court.

“Remember what I said, Azumane-san!” Noya called with a wide, cheeky grin.

“I will Noya-kun.” And to Asahi’s surprise, his mom came to mark him. 

“What are you planning?” he asked, frowning at her.

“I couldn’t possibly tell you.”

Being on the challenging team, Noya started with the ball. He broke away down the court and passed it to Mom. Asahi intercepted it almost apologetically, muttering “sorry,” as he passed it over her head to Daichi in one smooth motion. Daichi reached his hands up to catch it, but Noya suddenly appeared in his space, so close that his back probably brushed Daichi’s chest and he leapt, stealing the ball right out of the air.

“Got ‘em!” he crowed. Daichi stumbled a step back but it was more from shock than anything. 

Asahi moved around Mom, carefully not knocking into her, intent on defending Noya’s shot on net. 

He jumped a foot in the air when a pair of hands scrabbled against his sides, _tickling._

“Mom!” he sputtered, whirling around. Distantly, he could hear the _swish_ of Noya’s shot going through the net. He rubbed his hands against his ribs protectively. “Did you just—”

“No rule against it, is there?” Mom insisted almost childishly. Noya bounded right up to her and Asahi was treated to the bizarre sight of Noya and his mom _high-fiving._

“Atta girl, Azumane-san!” Noya said. “Our plan worked perfectly.” He grinned up at Asahi as he spoke, defiant.

“I—you—! You can’t just _do that!_ ” Asahi protested.

“Kiyokooo!” Noya called, eyes still on Asahi. “Is there any rule in basketball against a mother tickling her son?” 

“...There is not,” Kiyoko said mildly.

“See?” Noya clapped him on the shoulder. Asahi scrunched his nose at him. “Now get off the court, Asahi-san, you’re holding up the show.”

 _How is it possible,_ Asahi thought, slinking away with a laughing Daichi, _to be so happy and so annoyed and so_ into _someone all at the same time?_

And how was it possible that with Noya’s help, Mom was actually having _fun?_ Because she was. Asahi watched in awe as Noya sicced her on him and Ryuu and Suga alike, shamelessly trading on the fact that none of these men would deke out Asahi’s own mother. That left Noya to score all their team’s points. It was a task he was able to pull off surprisingly often, considering the height disadvantage and the fact that he had no formal basketball training. His and Mom’s team was still definitely the worst on the court but his smile was tireless and his easy jokes kept Mom from getting discouraged. He was so good with her, Asahi could hardly believe his eyes.

Was this what utter infatuation felt like? The thought left him breathless.

Two hours later and it was time to go. They were all standing along the fence drinking water. Daichi had insisted on leading cool-down exercises for the sake of the older women, and Asahi made sure to check Aunt Aikiko’s shoulders for any strain or knots.

“Take a hot shower when you get home, Auntie,” he told her. “Or a bath is okay too.”

“Music to my ears, Asahi-kun.” Turning to his mom, she said, “Chiyo, come take a picture with me. I need to prove to Hideki we actually played.” 

“Have fun today?” Noya’s voice came from behind him. Asahi turned, a helpless smile already forming on his face. 

“I did,” he admitted. “Even if…” He trailed away and glanced over his shoulder to where his mom and aunt were huddled together. Aunt Aikiko was holding up her phone for a selfie.

Noya laughed. “What, playing ball with your mom isn’t what the cool kids do?”

“Well.” Asahi smiled, shifting his weight. “Maybe _these_ cool kids do.” 

Noya was grinning. “Damn straight.”

Asahi’s smile curled, fond and gentle. “How’s it feel to be able to swear again?” 

“Listen!” Noya peeked around Asahi hastily. Asahi glanced back too. Still safe—Mom and Aunt Aikiko were examining the phone together. “Cut a guy some slack okay? I wasn’t prepared to meet your mom today.”

“Sorry,” Asahi said, even though he was pretty sure Noya wasn’t actually annoyed. “I really didn’t know she was coming.”

Noya grinned up at him. “Aw, it’s okay, Asahi-san. I had fun too.”

“I’m glad,” Asahi said softly. He shifted again. He felt fidgety but it was an almost good kind of fidgety. It was just that he was happy to see Noya and if he didn’t burn the energy somehow, he was going to do something embarrassing like pull Noya into his arms and kiss him. 

Noya's eyes turned curious. “You’ve got this look on your face, Asahi-san.”

“Ah.” Asahi fidgeted again. “I ...I want to kiss you,” he admitted, dropping his eyes. “But I don’t want to do it in front of my mom and aunt.”

Noya’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead. A slow smirk was spreading. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” The other basketball groups had left. Their group was otherwise alone on the court. Asahi tucked his hands into his pockets, a show of self-control. 

Noya peered around him again. “Azumane-san? Sawamura-san?” he called.

The two women turned to look at him. “Hm?” Aunt Aikiko asked. 

“I thought I heard Daichi-san calling you. Shouldn’t you see what he wants?”

“Really?” Aunt Aikiko turned her back and moved towards her son, Asahi’s mom following her.

Asahi turned to look at Noya in confusion. “Noya, wh—” 

Two strong hands wrapped themselves in the sides of The Douchebag Shirt and yanked him down. Noya stood on his tiptoes and kissed him. 

It was just a brief press of the lips. Asahi’s mouth had still been open in question, and Noya took advantage of that, moving his own lips against him briefly, gently. For the shortest second, Asahi felt him grin.

Then Noya was flat on his feet again, looking up at Asahi and making a show of wiping his mouth. He looked so confident in that moment, so comfortable in his own skin, like there was nothing his body could want that he couldn’t have. It was so _attractive_ and Asahi could hardly stand it. 

He watched Noya watch his throat as he swallowed. 

As everyone said their goodbyes, his eyes remained glued to Noya the whole time, as he laughed and smiled at Mom and Aunt Aikiko like they were old friends. _This is definitely,_ Asahi thought, _definitely_ _what it feels like to be smitten._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone is wondering, The Douchebag Shirt originally belonged to Kuroo.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who left comments and kudos last time!
> 
> Update: This chapter now has [ art! ](https://interstellarhitchhiker.tumblr.com/post/637190585826115584/really-cute-little-asanoya-bedtime-selfie-scene) Thank you so much to the wonderful [ interstel ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/interstel/pseuds/interstel) for this little gem! It made my entire week :D  
> I also drew [the kiss](https://ibb.co/7zDP25q) as a gift to myself.


	11. Field Trip

In a surprising turn of events… dating was  _ fun. _ Or maybe it was just that dating _ Noya _ was fun. Asahi wasn’t sure if he would feel so at ease without that confident, gregarious personality that shone in everything Noya did. Sure, it had only been a few days, but it was already infinitely better than the times he’d been on dates in college. On those dates he had found himself fretting even at the start, wondering about how long was too long to wait before seeing the other person again, when was appropriate to text them, and any number of concerns that just seemed so  _ irrelevant  _ with Noya. Noya never tried to play it cool. Asahi had woken up every day for the last three days to texts sent at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.  _ Just finished filming! Totally dead on my feet, _ one said.  _ Look at this! You can actually see a star out tonight!  _ said another. And Asahi would always smile at his screen and in return send pictures of the sky turning pink with sunrise, or the breakfast Daichi had left out for him as he left the house for work. He found himself looking forward to the weekend with an almost puppy-like excitement, the days he would get to see Noya again, kiss him again. 

Asahi wasn’t the overly-optimistic type but right now, he was willing to cautiously say that life was good. For the moment, it was just blue skies ahead. Not a problem in sight. 

“We have a problem,” Daichi said, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes with the back of one hand. He had his laptop open in front of him at the kitchen table. It was 9:47 p.m.

“Sorry,” Suga said from where he was sprawled over the arms of the lazy chair, reading a book. “No problems after 6:00 p.m. on weekdays, please.”

“Ha.” Getting up from his seat, Daichi brought his laptop into the living room and sunk down next to where Asahi was sprawled on the living room couch. Asahi drew up his knees to accommodate him. “If only.”

“This problem has nothing to do with the field trip, now would it?” Suga’s smile remained flippant but he was watching Daichi carefully. The field trip with Daichi’s senior students down to city hall was tomorrow.

“Unfortunately.”

Suga sighed. “Of course it is.”

“One of the other chaperones just emailed to tell us that her youngest came down with strep throat. She has to stay home tomorrow and take care of them.”

“So we’re one chaperone down,” Suga said.

“Yeah. The school has a pretty strict policy about the number of chaperones on any outing. I’m trying to get a hold of our principal so we can talk about making an exception, because I really don’t want to have any problems. Our kids worked so hard on those presentations.”

“They would have plenty of grounds to make an exception wouldn’t they?” Suga pointed out. “The kids who are going all had to be nominated by their teachers anyway. They’re all model students. And they’re all seniors, they’re more than old enough to behave themselves.”

“Yeah, that’s what I’d be telling her if I could get her to pick up the phone or check her email.” Daichi regarded his laptop screen with a frown. “She’s usually in bed by 10:00, she’s probably already turned off her devices.”

“Is there someone you could ask to replace her? The other chaperone?” Asahi asked.

Daichi sighed. “It’s pretty last minute. I’d ask one of my parents but both of them are working tomorrow. Same with your parents right?” He looked between Asahi and Suga to emphasize his point. “It’s during the day on a Wednesday. Most people are gonna be working. Hell, Asahi,  _ you  _ had to switch a shift just to be able to come.”

“Yeah,” Asahi agreed quietly. Fortunately, the field trip being all seniors meant fewer chaperones were needed, but even the chaperones Daichi had found had been hard to get. 

His phone buzzed and he reached for it absently.

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
_> image attached_ _  
__> image attached_ _  
__> image attached_ _  
__outfits for filming this week_ _  
__the black is my favorite definitely_

Asahi felt the usual smile steal over his face that he got whenever he was talking to Noya. “Oh, there’s the boyfriend,” he heard Suga say. Asahi graced him with a frown before turning back to his phone.

From: Asahi  
_I like the black one too!_ _  
__All of them look so cool though._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
_come on you gotta tell me which one’s your favorite_

From: Asahi   
_They can’t all be my favorite?_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
_nooo Asahi_  
_I gotta know what to wear on dates, don’t I?_

The truth of the matter was that Noya was one of those people who could wear anything confidently. He could probably show up in a paper sack and still look cool. Asahi however, was far too embarrassed to try to tell him this so he inspected each of the outfits carefully. Ever since he’d mentioned to Noya that he had a casual interest in fashion, Noya had been sending him more pictures from whatever their wardrobe department was up to.

From: Asahi   
_I really like the pinstripe pants with the graphic tee._ _  
__That’s a unique idea!_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)   
_ right? _ _   
_ _ they got some good ideas in wardrobe _

The lightbulb went off in Asahi’s head all at once. “What about Noya?” he asked before he even fully processed what he was saying.

“What?” Daichi and Suga looked over at him.

“What about Noya as a chaperone? He doesn’t work during the day.”

Daichi frowned, considering. “Did you ask him?”

“I could. Would that be okay?” He watched as Daichi rubbed his thumb and index finger over his chin, mulling it over.

“He’d have to sign the form,” Daichi said. “If I vouch for him, our admin should be understanding. But I’m more concerned that him being there would be actively distracting to the students. Most of the seniors have seen  _ Tanaka & Noya. _ My episode at least.”

“Why doesn’t Asahi at least ask him?” Suga suggested. “Noya has more experience navigating being a tv personality than we do. We might be making something out of nothing.”

Daichi thought it over for a moment longer. “Ask him,” he said finally. “And if he doesn’t think it’ll work, I’ll try to get my boss’ on her landline. If we have to make an exception to policy at least we can say we tried.”

Asahi nodded. “Right.” He looked down at his phone again. 

From: Asahi  
_Noya, do you have a minute?_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
_lol am i in trouble_ _  
__sure tho_ _  
__what’s up?_

From: Asahi  
_You’re not in trouble!_  
_Daichi had a chaperone fall through for his field trip tomorrow and we’re trying to find someone else but most people work during the day._ _  
__You’re one of the only people I know who doesn’t._ _  
__I know it’s super last minute, so absolutely no pressure if you have to say no!!_

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
_lol asahi-san did you notice you managed to ask me all that without outright asking me_ _  
__it’s almost impressive_

_ >Incoming call: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄) _

“Hello?” Asahi asked, nervous as he usually was picking up the phone.

“So this is the field trip to city hall right?” Noya said without preamble. Asahi could hear the sounds of other people in the background, and even thought he could make out Tanaka’s strident voice.

“Yes. That’s the one,” he confirmed, cupping the phone to his ear with both hands. He looked over at Daichi and Suga and found they were already looking back.

“What happened to the other chaperone?” 

“Her child is sick. Strep throat I think?” Asahi cleared his throat. “Noya I know it’s very last minute—”

“What time?”

Asahi recited the details Daichi had drilled into him in preparation. “We want to be at city hall at noon. We want to start loading the buses at 11:00 and Daichi wants us to be pulling out of the parking lot at 11:15.”

“So I should be there, what? Just before 11:00? 10:55?”

“Make it 10:45,” Daichi said when Asahi repeated this back to him. “We’ll get him to sign the necessary forms. I can email him a copy tonight so he knows what he’s signing at least.” 

“Sounds good,” Noya said. “See you guys at 10:45.”

“Are you sure?” Asahi asked. “Will it give you enough time to sleep?”

“Yeah, if I go to bed right when I get home, I’ll probably get a good seven and a half hours.” Noya laughed. “I used to run on  _ way _ less, especially in college.”

Asahi frowned at the alleged habits of College Noya but elected not to comment. “Do you drink coffee?” 

“Sure do.”

“How do you take it?”

“How unimpressed with me would you be if I said ‘the same way I take my men?’”

“Noya...” But Asahi was smiling in spite of himself.

“Hey. Hey, Asahi-san. Ask me how I take my men, Asahi-san.”

Asahi pressed his lips together, but Noya’s mischievous energy was catching. “Nishinoya. How do you take your men?” Beside him on the armchair, Suga cackled.

“Sweet and strong. Just like you.” Asahi could  _ hear  _ the grin in Noya’s voice. “And smokin’ hot, obviously.”

“How—How often does your coffee smoke?” Asahi's laugh was breathy, flustered and flattered all at once.

“Okay, sheesh, steaming hot then. Everyone’s such a critic.” But Noya was laughing as he said it. “Okay I need to go through hair and makeup now. See you tomorrow!”

“See you! And thank you so much!” 

“So he’s in?” Daichi asked as Asahi hung up. Asahi nodded. “Perfect. I’ll text him for his email address. Then I’ll email the updated chaperone list…” Asahi could tell as Daichi’s tone of voice shifted until he was mainly talking to himself. He watched his friend typing away at his laptop, taking in the way his shoulders had relaxed and the lines on his forehead had soothed. It soothed something in Asahi too. 

He settled himself more deeply into the couch and returned to what he’d been working on; schematic drawings for his upcoming installation with Kenma. He had texted his friend earlier “ _ what do you think about something kinetic? _ ” and Kenma had responded in his usual straightforward manner; “ _ tell me more. _ ” Before he got too engrossed, he glanced back at Daichi again. It was past 10:00 p.m. now and his poor friend was technically still working. He knew Daichi found his job rewarding, but not for the first time, Asahi was grateful to work in an occupation that left work at  _ work. _

He knew he wasn’t the only one thinking that way when Suga said, “Dai, I’m gonna run you a bath, okay?” and got out of his seat. He brushed his hand against Daichi’s shoulder as he passed.

“Hm?” Daichi said absently, not taking his eyes off his screen, though his hand belatedly tried to clasp Suga’s where it had been on his shoulder. “Yeah, thanks baby.” 

From: Asahi  
_Thank you again, Noya._ _  
__I really mean it. <3_

Suga and Asahi took the train together the next morning. Suga had chaperoned one field trip with Daichi in the past, but this was Asahi’s first time. “Do you feel nervous?” Suga asked. They had fortunately missed the worst of the morning rush and were able to get seats beside each other, heads bent close, voices low so as to not disturb the other passengers.

Asahi considered the question. “Not really,” he decided. Meeting new people was always a little nerve-wracking but there was no special anxiety on top of it this time. He worked with teenagers in physio, so he at least had some experience with getting along with them. “I’m more nervous to see how they’ll react to Noya,” he admitted.

“That will be interesting, won’t it?” Suga’s expression suggested that he meant interesting in the fun kind of way. Asahi focused on absorbing that optimism. 

“It won’t be boring,” he agreed since nothing with Noya ever could. 

They had deliberately left the house a little earlier than necessary so that they could stop at a coffee shop near the school and pick up everyone’s drinks. “I’ll pay this time,” Asahi told Suga quietly as they approached the register.

Suga smiled. He seemed unsurprised. “Yeah?” he confirmed, probably just to be polite. 

“Yeah.”

“Well, thank you, Beard-kun.” And Suga shoved his shoulder into Asahi’s gently.

As they got onto school grounds, Suga confidently led Asahi to the principal’s office to sign them in. They got a few passing glances from students as they went, but most people seemed unconcerned with them. It always struck Asahi when he saw teenagers, how  _ young _ they seemed now that he was an adult. Not that he himself felt that old—if anything growing up had been kind to him so far. He knew without a doubt that he was steadier and stronger than he had been in high school. As much as Suga bemoaned that they were “old,” Asahi didn’t really agree. It was more that high schoolers seemed more vulnerable, more slight, and more youthful than he had realized himself to be at that age. Despite this, he had to admit, a lot of his teenage clients seemed to have it more together than he had ever felt he did back then, smart and precocious and well-spoken. He admired them for it.

“The bus should be here any moment,” the receptionist told them once they had signed the chaperone’s form. “You’re welcome to in wait here for Sawamura-san if you like.”

“That’s okay,” Suga told her. “We’ll wait out front.”

The morning chill had mostly burned off by the time they settled themselves in the school’s front courtyard. Asahi had his own drink in one hand and the carrying tray in the other. “What time is it?” he asked Suga, unable to reach for his own phone.

“10:46,” Suga said. “And don’t look now, but I think I see a familiar face.”

Noya had clearly been there for a moment already, standing at the far side of the courtyard, looking for any familiar faces. When he saw Asahi and Suga, he brightened, and began to make his way over. “Good morning, good morning, good morning,” he chanted happily, looking amazingly chipper for someone who claimed to no longer be an early bird. “One of those for me?” His eyes had zeroed in on the coffees in Asahi’s hands. 

“Ah yes.” Asahi held the tray out. “The one closest to you.”

“Thanks!” Noya plucked the cup and took a sip. Asahi looked him over. He was wearing a ballcap and the blue in his bangs had carefully been tucked away beneath it. The rest of his dark hair was soft, clearly no product in today, and he was dressed neatly but simply. He looked like an understated version of his usual self.

“You’re welcome,” Asahi told him. “You look nice.”

Noya grinned. “Hey, back at you.” 

“Noya, we were wondering something,” Suga said as they led the way to the principal’s office. “Do you think it’ll be distracting for the students to have you here? Most of them saw the interview you did with Daichi.”

“You’d be surprised,” Noya said. “Context is a hell of a drug. Even most of our actual fans don’t recognize me and Ryuu in the wild if we’re not together. And even if they  _ do _ they usually don’t know which one I am.” He grinned as he said it, completely unoffended at the thought of this. “Also most people don’t realize how short I am? ‘Cause I’m sitting down the entire show, you know.”

“So they won’t even know it’s you?” Asahi asked. It seemed hard to imagine that anyone could mistake Noya’s charisma and energy.

“I mean, they’ll probably figure it out eventually. And definitely, if they’ve seen the show, a lot of ‘em will think I look familiar. But introduce me as Nishinoya and we’ll avoid a riot.”

“Have you ever incited a riot before?” Suga asked slyly. He pushed open the office door.

“Not yet.” Noya flashed his teeth as he walked past.

Daichi was coming out of his office just as Noya finished signing his forms. “Nishinoya, thanks for coming,” he said. “We’re going to be congregating with the other chaperones any minute.”

“You got it, boss-man.” 

There were thirty students going in total. Each chaperone was assigned a group of six. There was a moment, as Daichi introduced “Nishinoya-san,” where they all held their breath. However, just as Noya promised, he got a few funny looks but most people seemed to accept him.

As Asahi was introduced to his own students, he was desperately coming up with mnemonic devices to remember their names. It was that or suffer the embarrassment of having to ask twice. As they got onto the bus, he was relieved to find his group to be friendly and polite, full of questions about him and his experiences with life after graduation.

"What did you study in college, Azumane-san?" one of them, Chisuzu, asked. She had a cherry keychain on her bag. Cherry-Chisuzu.

"Ah, sports medicine."

"How did you know what you wanted to study?" She looked almost imploring. Of course, these kids were in that year where almost every other sentence out of someone's mouth was that hellish question; " _ what are you doing after graduation _ ?"

"I didn't," Asahi admitted. "Not until my second year." There was laughter from Noya's group. Noya was probably charming all their socks off.

"What did you say when people asked you?" It was Fusao this time. Fusao could be remembered because his socks, poking out of his too-short trousers, were fire-engine red. F for "fire-engine", F for "Fusao."

"I would say that I didn't know." Asahi sounded sheepish and he knew it. "It didn't exactly make anyone impressed."

"Was it stressful? To not know?"

"Yes,  _ very _ stressful," Asahi said earnestly. 

"I don't know either," Chisuzu declared, throwing herself back onto her seat dramatically. "It's making me crazy!"

"You sound like you really didn't have it together, Azumane-san," another boy, Denji informed him. His device was tied to the fact that he was broad, like Daichi had been at that age. Denji and Daichi. As he made his statement, Asahi sighed.  _ Definitely as forward as Daichi too. _

"I didn't," he said. "I'm just grateful to like my job now."

"Yeah?" Chisuzu looked hopeful. "You really like your job?" 

He smiled at the look on her face. "I really do. I promise." 

"That makes me feel better," she sighed. "Everyone keeps saying 'when  _ I _ was your age,' and making me act like they had it all figured out!"

"Many people don't," Asahi assured her. "Just like me. And just look at me now." He was confused by the chorus of giggles this got him, but the students were all smiling, so he figured it couldn’t be too bad. "Will you show me the questions your group prepared?" he asked, eager to keep their conversation moving. Six faces lit up with excitement.

"We want to ask about transit passes," Denji said. "Universities already include them with your student fees. We want to know why high schoolers can't get the same deal."

"We made all these pros and cons about it too. Wanna see our charts?" Fusao asked, digging into his bag.

" _ Please _ look at our charts Azumane-san," Chisuzu said. "We were up till like 2:00 a.m. finishing them."

He had to chuckle. "Show me," he said and held out his hands so they could set the papers in them. Looking them over, he could tell the reports were all well-made. His little group was clearly proud of them. Though he had known them for twenty minutes, Asahi felt a warm glow of pride himself as he listened to them make their case. 

“Oh no,” Chisuzu murmured as they walked Asahi through their explanations. She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I think I’m getting nervous.” 

“Just focus on the positives,” Fusao said. “By tomorrow this is going to be all over.” 

“Is the only positive thing you can say about this that it’s going to be over?” 

“No good,” Chisuzu said, holding her stomach tighter. “I need a distraction.”

“We could eat our snacks?” Fusao offered. 

“I don’t want to risk upsetting my stomach.”

Asahi decided to intervene. “You need something else to focus on?”

“Yes please, Azumane-san,” Chisuzu said.

“I think your nervousness is catching,” Fusao muttered. His leg was starting to bounce.

“How about this?” Asahi began. “Would you like to see my piercing?”

There were natural peaks and valleys to a large group of humans having conversation. Unfortunately, the talk in the bus hit a lull right when Asahi spoke. Everyone heard him. He was suddenly aware of far too many eyes watching him. He was hyper-aware that Noya had whipped his head around to stare. 

Faintly, he contemplated the fact that at least if everyone on this bus was now going to be seeing him as some kind of wild man, Noya probably thought piercings were cool. He hoped.

It was a fairly bold offer, showing his piercing. It took a certain brashness to assume anyone would even care. But he had leveraged it with his teenage patients enough times in the past and it had worked surprisingly well. They had gone through years of schooling under strict dress codes. Most of them hadn’t even begun to think about alternate forms of self-expression. This talking point could be a much needed gun in his arsenal when it came to breaking the ice with them.  _ Get your parents to sign all your timesheets by the next time you come in and I’ll show you my piercing. Guess where my piercing is and we’ll do lighter exercises today. _

Currently, his little group of six was fixing him with the kind of searching look he was extremely familiar with. First their eyes found his ears, looking for the pinprick holes that would indicate an earring. Then they roved his face, looking for evidence of eyebrow piercings, nose rings, snake bites. After the face was where it inevitably got a little uncomfortable. They started to eye his body uncomfortably, probably wondering about his nipples and his bellybutton. The kids with more pragmatic heads on their shoulders would realize that it would be wildly inappropriate for him to offer to show a group of teenagers anything on his torso. Most of them came away from their examination with the assumption that he had a tongue piercing they’d failed to notice. 

“Why would we want to see your piercing?” Denji asked finally. “That seems kinda weird.”

“People tell me it is a little weird,” Asahi agreed. He politely didn’t point out that he had all of their attention now. “But some people think it’s fun. You might have never seen one like it before.”

“This isn’t like a weird fetish thing is it?” Fusao asked. Chisuzu smacked him. “Ow!”

“What is wrong with you? You can’t just  _ ask _ someone that!”

“It’s not anything like that,” Asahi said. This was one of the few topics where it was almost impossible to make him blush. He’d heard all these questions before, and right now he almost had the feeling of being at work. “It’s nothing inappropriate, I promise.”

“Are you a punk?” Fusao tried, holding up his hands defensively, maybe in anticipation of Chisuzu trying to hit him again. “Like, musically I mean. Are you a punk rocker or something?”

Asahi smiled. “No. Just a physiotherapist. But punk is a very valuable genre, so I would be honored to be mistaken for one.”

Fusao appeared to consider this. “I guess so.”

“ _ Please _ show us your piercing, Azumane-san,” Chisuzu said, before Fusao could speak again. 

He had six faces looking at him with varying degrees of excitement and anticipation. With a sheepish smile, he combed his hair off to one side and bowed his head towards the center aisle. “Can you see it?”

“Whoaaaa,” he heard Fusao breathe. “That’s crazy! I’ve never seen that before.” As he spoke, Asahi heard the sounds of shuffling as the rest of his group leaned forward, trying to get a glimpse of his nape piercing.

“Ewww!” came a voice he didn’t recognize. The students from the row behind them were looking too. Lifting his head, he saw Denji already turning to glare.

“You can’t just say ‘ew’ to someone,” he chastised. 

“What’s the word for that?” Chisuzu asked. “Is it called a neck piercing?” 

“A nape piercing,” Asahi said, sitting back up. “Mine is called a double microdermal piercing.” Piercings weren’t as popular here in Japan as they were in some other countries. Asahi had even read that in some other places, they pierced their childrens’ ears in infancy. He had always wondered what they would make of him overseas.

“Did it hurt?” someone from another group asked. 

Asahi shook his head. “It was like a pinch. They say a lot of other places hurt more when you pierce them.”

“I want to get my ears pierced more.” Chisuzu tucked her hair away to show her simple studs. “But my parents won’t let me.”

“Maybe once you move out,” Asahi encouraged. “If you’re dreaming about it now, it’ll feel rewarding when you finally get it done.” He remembered the feeling of seeing his barbell in the mirror of the piercing parlor for the first time, the dual wave of relief and joy.  _ Yes!  _ He had thought, almost grateful as he tilted the mirror this way and that.  _ This is really me. _

Daichi’s voice rang out just then, interrupting their conversation. “Okay everyone, listen up! We are five minutes from city hall! Make sure you take all your belongings off the bus with you. Once we go through those front doors, you will not be able to come back on until it’s time to go home. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” came the answering chorus. There was a general shuffling as everyone moved to collect their things together.

His group fell in line behind Noya’s as they all prepared to enter city hall and from Asahi stood, Noya appeared to be holding court. He had his phone out and his students were all crowding around the screen. “So this is the list my producer put together for us,” he was saying. “It’s got all the headlines she thinks I should be looking at today. Then later I’m gonna send her any others that I think we should add, and compare that list to Tanaka’s.”

_ Ah, _ Asahi thought, as understanding dawned.  _ They recognized him. _ And it seemed Noya had fielded that recognition easily. Of course he had. Warm admiration washed over Asahi, for the ease with which Noya seemed to navigate the world around him.

“And you do this every day?” one of them asked.

“Yup.” Noya offered one of his easy grins. “The news never stops.”

A reception came and began handing out visitors’ passes, a stack of lanyards for each chaperone to hand out to their students in turn. “Don’t get nervous again, Chi-chan,” Fusao whispered, grin sly as he slipped his pass over his neck.

“I’m not,” she returned airly. “I’m thinking about how to ask my parents for a septum piercing. So there.”

“Do it. Then  _ you _ can look like a punk.”

“Fusao-kun…” Asahi tried.

To his relief, Fusao relented. “Sorry, Azumane-san,” he said sheepishly. “I think your hardware is cool. Honest.”

They were led into a long conference room, where the mayor and his assistants were already waiting, along with some sitting members of city council. Asahi felt his natural anxiety at being in a room with such important people, but it was tempered by the crowd of students around him. They were the real stars of the show. He was just an observer.

Daichi gave a brief introduction on the school’s behalf and they all bowed to the officials. Then the students were being seated around the conference table as the chaperones were seated along the wall. There was some shuffling as the various groups began to place their charts and handouts on the table in front of them. As the students prepared themselves, an assistant offered the adults coffee from a nearby refreshment trolley. Noya immediately snagged the seat beside Asahi.

“These kids are so much smarter than I am,” he muttered with a quiet laugh. 

“ _ So _ much smarter,” Asahi agreed fervently, accepting a cup of tea for himself. “I was nothing like this in high school.”

“You should have heard the questions they were asking me. Like, all this stuff about if I’m concerned about biasing people’s perception of the news and how I deal with that and whatever. It was really impressive. Those are big questions to ask, you know?”

“I would have liked to have heard that,” Asahi said honestly.

“I would like to see your piercing.” Noya told him slyly. Asahi huffed and shook his head, smiling despite himself.

“Later, maybe.”

When it came time to present, Asahi found himself getting secondhand nervousness. There were to be six presentations and his little group was going third. He made himself sit still, paying due attention as the other teams discussed things like libraries, and school infrastructure. Then Denji was standing up and the others were following him. Asahi’s fists clenched in his lap.

“Thank you for having us,” Denji said, bowing. And they were off.

His group laid their case out plainly. They sounded confident and put-together and as they discussed funding, and need, and precedent. Asahi could have been biased, but he couldn’t imagine anyone on the city council could have a single objection. As they sat back down, he gave them an enthusiastic thumbs up, delighted when the gesture was returned with enthusiasm. 

Despite clearly being interested in the attention Daichi had been receiving from tv and the newspapers, Mayor Furukawa didn’t seem to recognize Noya at all. He wanted a photo shaking hands with Daichi though. Daichi agreed with impeccable manners, saying it would be no trouble as long as all his students and chaperones could be in the shot as well. Asahi felt a glimmer of admiration for the easy way his friend herded 36 teenagers into the frame, as well as the polite but firm way he continued to refuse Furukawa's suggestions for at least one photo with just the two of them.

When the time came to take the picture, Noya slipped behind Asahi.

“Noya, wh—” Asahi breathed, glancing back down at him. From this position, Asahi’s size would completely hide himself from view. Noya shoved on his shoulders, urging him to turn back around.

“I’m not here, Asahi-san,” he said. “You think I can just appear in the mayor’s photos without telling the PR department? Kiyoko would wring my neck.” A few of the nearby students gave him strange glances at this. Noya put one finger to his lips and winked at them. They giggled and put fingers to their own lips in reply.

As they all congregated in the hallway after, Asahi rejoined his group. “You did so well!” he told them, smiling as sincerely as he could. “You were just like professionals.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Noya high-fiving his group enthusiastically. 

“I was so  _ nervous _ ,” Chisuzu said.

Denji shrugged. “I knew it would be fine.”

“Alright everyone, single-file!” Daichi called. “We’re going to be making our way back to the buses now. Stay quiet and keep it moving. Other people are in their offices right now, having their normal work-day.” 

Asahi managed to fall in line directly behind Noya as they were filing back onto the bus. “What time do you need to leave for work?” Asahi asked him.

“Right when we get back to school probably. I’ll call a car though. It’ll be fine.” 

“What time do you work, Nishinoya-san?” one of the students in his group asked. 

“4:00-midnight, officially,” Noya said with a grin. “Sounds cushy right? We go overtime a lot though so it’s more like 4:00-1:00 a.m. Hey, wanna see an old episode script?” And Asahi let him be drawn back to attending to his own students.

“Azumane-san,” Denji said as they got seated on the bus again. “Would you like to take a selfie with us? We’re commemorating our project finally being done.”

“And me not stuttering in front of the city council,” Chisuzu added.

“That makes you a better public speaker than me,” Asahi said with a smile. Fusao held up his phone and their group all squeezed in, huddling to fit everyone in the frame.

“Can I get your email, Azumane-san? I’ll send it to you,” Denji said.

“Ah, sorry, I can’t give a student my contact information,” Asahi explained. “But you know how to contact Sawamura-san right? He can forward the email to me.” 

Back at school, the students filed off the bus quickly and efficiently, heading back inside to prepare for the end of the day. The chaperones stood by and watched them go. One girl stopped in front of Noya and the adults collectively raised their eyebrows.

“Excuse me, Nishinoya-san?” she said.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Are you by any chance, Noya-san from  _ Tanaka & Noya _ ?”

With a grin, Noya took his ball cap off his head and tipped it to her. His distinct blue hair began to unfurl towards his forehead. Asahi heard several students gasp. “Sure am. It’s nice to meet ya.”

“Nice to meet you too!” she squeaked.

“Keep it moving, keep it moving!” Daichi called. “You all know better than to hold up the line!” And the students hastened to continue their way back into the school. 

Noya waved to them and got several waves in return.

_ He’s so cool,  _ Asahi thought. A strange pull rose in his body at the thought, like pining, if it was possible to pine for someone while standing right beside them. And also dating them.

As the last of the students disappeared through the school’s front doors, Daichi turned to the chaperones. “Thank you all so much for coming.” He shook all their hands one after the other, wry humor flooding his dark eyes when he got down the line to Suga and Asahi. 

“Anything for you, Sawamura-san,” Suga said without a trace of irony. Asahi saw Daichi’s cheeks go faintly pink anyway. 

“It was no trouble,” Asahi said simply when Daichi got to him. Daichi’s smile was companionable and sincere. Asahi felt the pride that often came at times like this, the feeling of having genuinely been useful to someone he valued. 

“I would escort you all back to the main office for sign-out but I have hall monitor duty right away. Are you all okay to find it and get yourselves signed out?” He smiled at the resounding “Yes, Sawamura-san!” he got in return. With a final nod, he strode off into the school building, the chaperones trailing much more leisurely in his wake.

“So you have to run to work straight after this?” Suga asked as he, Noya and Asahi were leaving the school grounds. They had signed out of the office properly and were eager to leave before the after-school rush began.

“Yup. The grind never stops, yadda yadda.”

“I heard you telling the students that you have to study the headlines before you even go to work?” Suga regarded him with bright interest.

“Yeah. We have to be aware of all the major headlines from earlier in the week, and any that mighta broken during the night too. And then of course the morning news is already cookin’ by the time we wake up again.”

“Wow,” Asahi said, properly awed. “That’s a lot of keep up with.” 

“Sure is,” Noya said as they came to a stop by the curb along the main road. He took his phone out and Asahi could see over his shoulder that he was in the process of ordering a cab. “But I kinda like it you know?” he continued. “I mean, obviously I wouldn’t have this job if I didn’t like it. But all the constant updates are actually really cool. There’s always something happening.”

“So did you get a chance to do everything you needed to before work today?” Suga asked. Asahi felt a tug on his heart. Noya clearly had done them a huge favor by coming out, possibly even at the expense of his own responsibilities.

“Yup! I was lucky the kids seemed to want to hear about it ‘cause that meant I could look at my notes and talk to them at the same time. Which is a pretty good two-for-one if you ask me. All that’s left are the video clips but the media team sends me the transcripts for those anyway. I can read them in the cab.” Noya’s posture remained loose and casual as he spoke, as though the last four hours for him had not been an incredible feat of time management.

“We really ate into all your free time today didn’t we?” Suga said, echoing Asahi’s thoughts.

Noya was dismissive. “Eh, that’s what the weekends are for.”

“We really appreciate you coming out, Noya,” Asahi said. “You didn’t have to do this.” 

“I wanted to,” he insisted. “We’re all friends now right? My friends can count on me.”

“You too,” Asahi said impulsively. “You can count on us too.” And Noya smiled up at him in response, the corners of his eyes crinkling up.

“You’ll be feeling it tomorrow, I bet,” Suga said. “I know I would.”

“My sleep schedule has been through a  _ lot _ in my life. Some days my body lets me get away with it, other days not. Sure, I could wake up like a total zombie but that’s Future Noya’s problem.” He laughed at this, hands tucked easily behind his head, as though sleep deprivation was a joke and not something Asahi had photographic evidence of him experiencing. The selfie of groggy Noya on his way to the Shimizu family reunion was still saved on Asahi’s phone. 

“I wish we didn’t work on such opposite schedules,” he fretted. “Otherwise I could come over tomorrow and give you a massage.”

Noya snapped his head to look up at him. “Yeah? A massage? Seriously?”

“...Yes? Is that something you’d be interested in?” he asked cautiously. “I do have massage training if that’s what you’re worried about—”

“Azumane-san.” Noya held a hand up to forestall him. “Asahi-san. Asa-san.” 

“...Nishinoya?”

“Are you actually asking me that? Of  _ course _ I want you to give me a massage.” He had turned to Asahi with his full body, his focus pushing over Asahi like a wave. “What about this weekend? We’re still hanging out right?”

“Yes, on Saturday, because I took a shift on Sunday—”

“So can you give me one then!”

Something was happening here. Asahi took in Noya’s obvious excitement and wolfish smile. The gears in his head slowly began to turn. Maybe, he realized, just _maybe_ , offering a massage to someone he was  dating was different than offering it to someone he wasn’t _. _ And maybe there was something to that, an appeal he had never contemplated before. 

He and Noya were definitely staring at each other now. Asahi became aware of his mouth slowly going dry. “If you’re sure it’s okay,” he managed.

“It’s more than okay,” Noya said. “ _ Way  _ more than okay. I told you right? Touch me whenever you want.”

Suga snorted and Asahi’s whole body flushed hot. For a wild second, he had completely forgotten Suga was  _ there. _

“Oop, my cab’s pulling up!” Noya said. “‘Kay gotta run. See you Saturday!”

_ Yes,  _ Asahi thought faintly as they all said their goodbyes.  _ See you. _

“Asahi,” Suga said as Noya’s cab drove away. “No pressure, but if you let Noya get away, I might have to hit you.”

“Well  now I feel pressure!” Asahi protested. Suga just laughed and after a moment, Asahi did too. 

_ Saturday, _ his brain hummed.  _ See you Saturday. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you all in the new year!


	12. Massage

“Person, place, or thing?” Asahi asked. He was in the process of delicately spearing his takoyaki with a toothpick.

“Thing.” Noya popped one of his own into his mouth and began to chew. It was their second official date, just the two of them. A street food festival was taking place near Noya’s apartment and they were taking advantage, wandering up and down the long rows of stalls. 

“Is it a living thing?” A young family was trying to get by them, but Asahi, who had his back turned, didn’t notice. Noya reached out with his free hand to cup Asahi’s elbow and tug him into Noya’s personal space. Asahi came easily, glancing over his shoulder as he realized what was happening. He had his sports bag with him today, full of all the stuff he was going to need for Noya's promised massage later, and he pulled it closer to him as he moved aside.

“Yup.” Noya let his hand linger on Asahi’s elbow for a moment before returning to his food.

“Does it live in Japan?” Asahi was wearing his hair loose today. It was shiny and smooth and when Noya stood close enough, he could smell the shampoo. Citrus.

“Dunno.”

“You don’t _know?_ ” The concern in those doe eyes suggested this was a betrayal of some magnitude.

“I mean, I don’t think it does?” Noya amended. “I could look it up.”

“But it isn’t famous for living in Japan?” Then, he hastened to add, “Wait, that doesn’t count as one of my questions.”

“Right.” Noya grinned up at him. “Whatever you say.”

“Does it live in Asia?”

“Huh.” _Maybe I should have picked something better._ “I think that depends on who you ask?”

“Noya!” Asahi seemed to be somewhere between exasperated and fond. “What does that _mean?_ ” 

“Here, here. Let’s sit down, then I can look it up.” There were tables set up nearby for the patrons of the food stalls. Noya directed Asahi to a free spot with a hand on his lower back. He definitely did not miss the small, private smile Asahi tried to hide in the curtain of his hair. It made him smile too. If Asahi liked getting taken care of, this was gonna go well. Noya definitely liked taking care of him.

As they settled on the bench and Asahi tucked his sports bag beneath it, Noya drew out his phone and did a quick internet search. “Okay,” he announced. “So, it pretty much doesn’t live in Asia.”

“It ‘pretty much doesn’t?’” Asahi repeated dubiously. He chewed on his bottom lip in thought. “Is it a plant of some kind?”

“Nope! Also I totally lost track of how many questions that was. Sorry.” Okay, maybe he should have picked something he knew more about, but he’d just seen a show on this last night! How was he supposed to know how uneducated he was? 

“Oh, it was five,” Asahi said. “I’m counting.” He held up his hand to demonstrate his carefully folded fist, where he’d been counting on his fingers.

“That is fucking adorable,” Noya informed him and got to enjoy the way Asahi ducked his head, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask, why the nape piercing?”

Asahi protested the sudden change of topic. “I thought we were playing a game.” 

“We are. We’re just...taking a break for a bit.”

“We’re only five questions in,” Asahi chided gently. He glanced over his shoulder as another party tried to settle in near them, shuffling close to Noya to give them space. Noya took the opportunity to press their knees together. 

“We’ll come back to it, I promise.”

Asahi scrunched his nose. “Well, if you say so...” He reached up to rub at the piercing in question. “I’ve always liked the ‘wild’ look, I guess. I’d been thinking about getting a piercing for a while, actually. But I wanted something that was hard to notice, because I didn’t want to uh, have to ask my boss if it was okay.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?” Noya agreed. “Did you ever think about a belly button piercing or something?” 

Asahi shook his head. “I wanted something out of the way.”

“Is that why you always rub your neck?” Noya mimed the motion as he spoke. 

Asahi mirrored him almost on reflex. “No, I did that before. I didn’t really think about it when I got my piercing. But now...I actually like that I can feel it when I do this.” Noya could tell when Asahi was actively toying with it as he spoke because his gaze took on an internal focus, like he was following the movement of his own fingers. “My therapist says it probably helps because it’s something tactile for me to feel.”

“You got a therapist?” 

“Yes.” Asahi’s eyes darted away from him and then back. “I do.” He seemed like he hadn’t anticipated admitting this. Noya got the apprehension. Therapists were becoming more common overseas but the idea hadn’t gained a lot of popularity here yet. And a lot of the resources that _did_ exist in Japan were for foreigners. 

Time to offer some comfort.

“Ryuu and I had to go to therapy for work once,” he said, nudging Asahi’s foot with his own. “It was supposed to prepare us to go from being friends to having a professional relationship or whatever.”

“You did?” Asahi’s face was one of honest shock.

“Yeah. It was pretty chill. I mean,” he hastened to add. “I guess you don’t go to therapy to have a chill time, but yeah. We talked about all this stuff we probably wouldn’t have on our own, you know?” Calling it ‘chill’ definitely glossed over a lot of moments, moments where it had gotten uncomfortable, tense in a way Noya wasn’t used to feeling around Ryuu. But they had gotten through it, so in the end, Noya figured that made it chill.

“Therapy is good like that,” Asahi agreed softly. His eyes dropped to the table and Noya studied him closely. He didn’t seem to be uncomfortable. His shoulders had stayed relaxed, and his leg hadn’t tensed where it was pressed against Noya’s knee. If anything, Asahi appeared to be thinking. “I’m glad you went.” He lifted his head to look at Noya shyly. “Is that weird to say? I _am_ glad.”

“Nah, I don’t think it’s weird.” Noya said. “I’m glad I went too, you know.” Sure, he had never really felt a compulsion to go back on his own, but hey. To each their own, right?

They had a peaceful moment of silence before Asahi gave a hum that Noya was beginning to understand meant that he was about to speak. “Can I ask you questions now?”

“Hit me.” 

“Do you eat it?”

Noya blinked. And then blinked again. “Do I eat _what?_ ” The horny teenage boy who lived in his head was perking in interest. _Do I eat ass? Well, Asahi let me tell you, it depends on the ass. Show me yours and I can decide._

“The thing I’m supposed to be guessing." Something in Asahi’s tone suggested that if he wasn’t such a sweetheart, he would be questioning Noya’s ability to focus. “I thought we were still playing?”

Right. The game. Obviously. “Uh, yeah you do eat it.” Nicer people than him probably wouldn’t have heard an innuendo in that but Noya was who he was.

“Do you eat it every day? Or just on special occasions?”

 _Depends on how nasty you are,_ Teenage Noya wisecracked. Adult Noya forcibly shoved him back into the box he lived in. “Special occasions.” 

“Hmm.” Asahi played with his toothpick as he considered his next question. Noya privately thought that if he chewed at it, it would really add to his tough-guy look but Asahi probably had too much class for that. “Is it a type of meat?”

“Yup!” Noya popped the last of his takoyaki into his mouth. “Also what do you want to eat next?” 

Asahi’s guesses lasted him through his own takoyaki as well as them getting in line to buy something called “rotatoes.” Rotatoes were a snack made out of a single potato cut into a long spiral, fried on a stick. They were delicious as hell, though in Noya’s opinion, “This is not ¥500 worth of potato.”

Asahi nibbled at his delicately. “Mmhm, potatoes are very cheap, aren’t they? The overhead is low.” 

Noya’s brain took a minute to filter this, to realize this was Asahi-speak for agreement with Noya’s criticism. “Right? They could have given us twice the potato. Also, how many questions do you have left?” 

“Just two.” Asahi instinctively tended to find his way to the edge of crowds, Noya had noticed. Always trying to stand out of the way. Noya, who was the perfect size for slipping in and out of other pedestrians, could not relate. But still this was kind of nice, just standing off to the side for the moment, people watching with his boyfriend. 

Asahi’s questions had gotten a little lost around the half-way mark when Noya had informed him he was supposed to be guessing the animal the meat in question came from, not the dish itself. But he had gotten it all back on track with “Is it seafood of some kind?” It was. The last thing he’d asked Noya was “have you ever had it?” and then seemed endearingly betrayed when Noya said he’d hadn’t. Now he was watching Asahi watch something in the crowd. Asahi brightened.

“Did you hear about it from tv?”

Noya blinked. “Uh yeah. I did.” _How did he—?_

“Is it those crabs? From North America?” 

“Yeah! The king crabs!” Noya held up both hands up for a high-five, hopping a little from foot to foot. Some people could find Noya’s boundless enthusiasm off-putting, but when Asahi smiled down at him, his eyes crinkled at the corners. “Ding ding ding! You got it, Asahi-san.” 

Asahi just laughed and shook his hands out to rid them of the sting. Wordlessly, he pointed to a food truck down the line which proclaimed itself to be the Seafood Shack. An additional sign, tacked onto the main one, boasted all kinds of edible oddities, “as seen on tv!” A large cut-out of a king crab was tacked to the sign.

“No way!” Noya laughed delightedly. “This is a sign.” He slipped one hand onto the small of Asahi’s back, leading him forward. “We gotta eat there.”

“It _is_ a sign,” Asahi agreed, falling into step with Noya easily. “It is an actual, literal sign.”

Noya laughed, throwing his head back even as he took the opportunity to poke Asahi in the back. It earned him a cute little jump. “Yeah yeah, smartass.”

The as-seen-on-tv place was sold out of king crab, but it still had things like squid ink noodles so Noya bought them a plate to split. He took a picture of Asahi delicately holding up a bite of the noodles with his chopsticks, shyly making a peace sign with his other hand. And then he made him take a video of Noya trying to slurp an entire noodle in one go. The end of it hit him in the nose before going into his mouth and Asahi giggled like a five year old. _Fucking cute,_ Noya thought, beaming.

They continued making their way through the stands. Asahi, for his turn at twenty questions, made Noya guess the color pink, which he had a hell of a time with. It took him fifteen tries to even figure out that the guy was talking about a _color._ It hadn’t helped that when Noya had asked, “Can I hold it in my hands?” Asahi had said, “Sort of?” 

At one point, a young woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties, recognized Noya and asked for a picture. Noya complied easily, and Asahi took it for them, looking nothing other than very pleased to help. “I took a bunch,” he told her, as he handed her phone back. “I’m sure one of them will be good.”

“Thank you so much!” she chirped up at him, so sincere that Noya got to watch Asahi go a little flustered. Noya liked him so much it was ridiculous.

“Ready to head back?” he asked later, when they were finishing up their roasted jackfruit. Asahi had been getting slowly more quiet, and Noya wondered if he was ready to be away from the crowd again.

“Mmhmm.” Asahi punctuated this with a nod. There was a sleepy sort of edge to it though so maybe he was just tired, rather than getting overwhelmed. Hopefully. It was a good thing his apartment wasn’t too far from here.

“Thank you for having me,” Asahi said, when they finally made it back. 

“Come on in!” Noya said. “How about that massage?”

“Sure.” Asahi toed off his shoes. “Did you want to start right away?”

“Are you kidding me? _Duh._ I’ve been looking forward to this.” 

Asahi’s laugh came out in a soft huff as he moved to place his sports bag on Noya’s kitchen table. “I hope I live up to your expectations.”

“Relax, I’m an easy guy to please,” Noya laughed. Well, maybe not “easy” exactly but, he found it hard to imagine that Asahi touching him in any capacity could be disappointing.

“Well, if you’re sure.” Asahi unzipped the bag and began to rummage through it. “I have some different oils, so you can tell me which one you want me to use.” Glancing back at Noya he added, “Sorry, I don’t have lavender though.”

Noya laughed, startled. “Is that a big deal for some people?”

“It’s just, I know it’s a very popular scent,” Asahi explained. “But it gives me a headache.” He sounded almost sheepish as though this was some kind of professional failing on his part.

Noya distantly spared a thought for whether or not lavender was some sort of gold standard in the massage oil community(?) but was quickly distracted from the idea. “Wow!” His eyes followed with avid interest as Asahi began to lay out all the different options that he _did_ have. “You got a lot!”

“Yeah,” Asahi agreed. “I think it’s nice to have a choice, right?” He held up one bottle in particular. “I even have an unscented one.”

“I wanna see all of ‘em.” Noya shifted through them, examining each bottle in turn. One bottle gave him pause. A slow, wicked grin formed on his face. He could tell in his peripheral vision that Asahi had frozen suddenly. “‘Edible Massage Oil in French Vanilla,’” Noya read. He twisted the cap off. “Still unopened, huh?”

“That was a joke gift from Suga,” Asahi said weakly. 

“Yeah? So does that mean I’m not allowed to ask for it?” Noya’s fingers toyed with the foil seal. Holding it to his nose, he frowned a little. _Hard to get a good whiff when it’s still unopened like that._

“Do you, uh, want it?”

“Not if it’s gonna make this less fun for you.” Noya’s grin dropped and he turned to examine Asahi more closely. Ryuu said his 180° changes in demeanor could be intimidating but hopefully it would just show Asahi that he was being serious. “I like teasing and all but I don’t wanna make you _uncomfortable_ , you know?”

Asahi blinked. Then his gaze took on an internal focus and he genuinely seemed to consider it. “You can open it?” he said finally. “See if you like the smell.”

“Sure.” It was a bit of a hassle to get the top off with his short fingernails but eventually, he managed it. Putting it to his nose, he inhaled. “Oh that is _tasty._ ” He had never been sure what exactly distinguished 'French vanilla' from regular vanilla but it sure did smell like the fancy ice cream he liked. _Science has come so far,_ he thought, laughing to himself. Carefully, Noya tipped the bottle onto his palm and let a splash of oil out. Thoughtfully, he licked his hand from palm to fingertip. “Not bad,” he said, smacking his lips. 

Asahi was staring. 

“What?” 

“Nothing!”

Noya had a pretty good feeling he could guess what ‘nothing’ meant. “Don’t worry, Asa-san,” he said, cleaning his hand with a few more kitten licks. “I wasn’t trying to make that sexy, I swear.”

“No, I know! I know, but...” Asahi tipped his head, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Sexy isn’t a thing you _do,_ right? It’s a thing you are. I think.”

It took Noya’s brain a second to piece that one together. When he did, flattery fluttered in his chest like a bird. He was beaming. “You think I’m sexy?”

Asahi fidgeted but ultimately held his ground. “Do you not?”

“Do I think _you’re_ sexy? Or do I think _I’m_ sexy?”

“Uh. Either?” God, Asahi was playing with his hair now, running it through the fingers of one hand over and over again. He was so cute, Noya was about two seconds away from climbing into his lap and kissing him.

“I mean, obviously yes, all of the above,” Noya said, focusing on re-capping the massage oil to hold himself in check “You’re sexier though.”

“That’s not true.”

Noya’s eyebrows flew up. The answer had been immediate. Asahi’s hand had dropped from his hair. “Most people would probably say you are,” Noya pointed out. The whole gentle giant thing was a total knock-out in anyone’s book, he was sure.

“But you’re so cool! And confident,” Asahi insisted. Behind his flush cheeks his eyes looked truly stubborn. “You walk into any room and charm everyone’s socks off.” This was so fricking flattering, Noya could make a strong case for Asahi charming his socks off right now. And probably his pants, though Noya remained dutifully aware of his promise to keep things PG-13 around here.

“Okay, okay,” he relented, mostly to move them back to safer ground. “We can _both_ be the sexy one, how’s that sound?”

This time Asahi’s hand tucked his hair behind his ear. “That sounds fair.” 

Noya beamed one more time. “Ballin’. Let me smell the next one.” 

Asahi had a lot of cool flavors ( _Not flavors,_ Noya scolded himself. There was going to be no tasting here, though he did tuck that mental image away for later). Aside from the unscented one and the edible one, there was almond and green tea and something called bergamot. “Almond,” Noya said, handing it over. “I like that one.”

Asahi smiled. “My dad likes the green tea.” 

“Your dad have sore muscles and stuff?” Noya shrugged out of his shirt as he spoke. The conversation would keep the atmosphere in here from being too charged, probably. He was still unsure of where the line was that would make Asahi uncomfortable, but then again, the guy had offered to let Noya get shirtless and rub oil on his back, so he had to be prepared for it to get a _little_ sexy right? 

“He has a bad back," Asahi said. “When I was in college we were all worried he was going to be forced into early retirement.”

“What’s he do?”

“He’s a maintenance man.” Asahi pulled a towel out of his sports bag. “Can I lay this on your couch? I don’t want to soil your fabric.”

 _You can ruin my fabric anytime,_ Noya pretended not to think. “Yeah, of course,” he said aloud, and followed along behind Asahi as he closed the short distance from the kitchen table to the couch, like a cat intent on getting underfoot. Asahi laid the towel out carefully and smoothed it out. 

“There,” he said, and Noya was already climbing to lie facedown before Asahi could even tell him to do it.

“Ready!” he crowed, wriggling a little to settle in more comfortably.

“Um. Okay,” Asahi said. “Do you want music? Some people don’t like silence for this, but...” He trailed away, a clear invitation for Noya to chime in.

Noya was almost vibrating and Asahi hadn’t even touched him yet. “Talk to me,” he said, his eyes already closed. “I like your voice.” Asahi’s voice actually existed in a register almost as low as Daichi’s. It was just most of the time he pitched it higher, making himself sound more gentle, more deferential. 

“What do you want me to talk about?” There was a shuffling as Asahi carefully tapped some of the almond stuff onto his hand. Then came a squishy sound as he rubbed his palms together.

“You should rub your hands by my ears,” Noya said. “That’s what those ASMR videos do you know? We should see if I get all tingly.”

“...Really? Is that fun?”

“Yeah! Didn’t you ever play those games as a kid where you try to give each other goosebumps?”

Asahi made a low hum of recognition. “We did.” The couch shifted as he sat on the edge of the cushions, his hip pressing into Noya’s clothed thigh. “Those always made me too ticklish though.” Noya sensed rather than felt, Asahi level his curled palm near Noya’s ear. He began to roll his fingers along it, shifting the oil.

“Ah!” Noya laughed, hunching his shoulder up towards his ear. “That sounds so weird!” The shift of air as Asahi curled his fingers tickled at his bare skin too.

“Really?” Asahi withdrew his hand and Noya finally turned his head to see what he was doing. Asahi brought his hand up to his own ear and listened to the movement. “Oh that _is_ weird.”

“Right?”

“I wonder why it sounds like that.” There was honest curiosity on Asahi’s face. “I think the oil is warm now,” he added after a moment, holding up his palms as if to illustrate his point. “I’m going to start.”

Noya offered a half-grin in encouragement, his face still smushed against the towel. “Let’s do this.”

He closed his eyes again as Asahi’s broad hands settled onto his back, spending a fair amount of willpower to not make any incriminating noises. “Where do you usually carry your tension?” Asahi asked. 

“High,” Noya said. “Near my shoulders.” He fought a whimper as those strong fingers began to dig in at the junction near his neck. _Mother of GOD_ , _t_ _hat feels good._ Clearing his throat he aimed for a normal tone of voice. “Your dad has a bad back?”

“Yeah.” Asahi’s voice was a low murmur, somewhat distracted. He was probably focusing on his work. “He has trouble bending now. And he has a special chair he sits in at home.” 

“That sucks,” Noya mumbled. “My grandma had lotsa problems too. Couldn’t sit properly. Or she had to sit seiza a lot.”

“She _had_ to?” 

“Mmhm. Wish I could remember what the problem was.” When Asahi made long sweeps with his hands, over the shoulder blades like he was doing now, it felt almost possible to fall asleep. But then, “ _ah—”_ Noya managed, a click in the back of his throat, as Asahi dug at the tops of his shoulders, and Noya was actively trying not to moan. 

“It sounds like she might have had trouble bending at the waist,” Asahi mused. His voice was slipping into the softer, lower end of his range and it was not helping Noya’s problem at all. Even if they _were_ talking about his grandma. “She could have had lower back problems.” 

“Don’t we all,” Noya laughed and then groaned again as Asahi’s thumbs dug in. 

“There,” he murmured. “You’re so tight right there.” Noya discarded any attempt at a snappy quip in favor of sucking a breath through his teeth. “Is the pressure okay?”

“You can go harder— _hahhh_.” Noya exhaled full force through his nose. “Yeah like that.” 

Asahi kept talking, just like Noya had asked. “I like this part,” he confessed, working his way down to Noya’s shoulder blades. “I can feel when the tension starts to release. It feels like...” A low hum in the back of his throat, considering. “It crumples, almost?” He continued to work at Noya’s muscles as he spoke. “It lets me know I’m doing a good job.”

“Trust me, Asa-san,” Noya mumbled, melting more and more into the towel. “You’re doing a _very_ good job.”

A satisfied hum. “Good,” he breathed. “I’m glad.” The softness in his voice made goosebumps breakout over Noya’s forearms. He couldn’t remember the last time that someone had been so gentle with him. Not that people were aggressive towards him exactly, but he definitely didn’t give off the impression that he needed to be handled with the kid gloves. And Asahi wasn’t under that impression either, he knew. This was just how he was.

Also? Noya was getting aroused. It was a lazy, luxurious sort of arousal though. The air smelled so good, like Asahi’s fancy massage oil and Asahi’s voice was low and soft, his hands were slow and strong. Noya flexed his whole body for a moment and gave a long, contented rumble before settling himself more deeply onto the couch.

“You seem so relaxed,” Asahi said. Noya could hear the gentle smile in his voice. 

“I have fucking died and gone to heaven,” Noya murmured. 

Asahi chuckled softly. “That’s kind of you.”

“S’ _accurate_ of me.” He was too blissed out to put much emphasis in it. Damn, but he could so easily fall asleep like this. Of course with the state he was in, if he fell asleep right now, he’d probably wake up again grinding into the couch. Not a good look when you had promised your boyfriend that you could keep it in your pants. 

He didn’t know how long he lay there, but Asahi was probably keeping track. Eventually Noya felt the couch shift as Asahi leaned back and said, “Noya? We’re done.”

“ _Mmmm_.” Noya gave a wiggle, trying to rouse himself. Turning his head, he blinked his eyes open and looked back at Asahi, where he was still sitting at the edge of the couch. Asahi was watching him, blinking slowly in his turn. He really was a beautiful man, Noya thought. 

“Good morning,” Noya told him. His voice definitely sounded sleepy. 

Asahi smiled at him. “Good morning.” And then, slowly, he leaned down and brushed Noya’s bangs away to kiss him on the forehead. Sitting back, his eyes searched Noya’s face, maybe looking for a sign that the gesture was okay. As if Noya was ever gonna protest.

Well, he’d just have to show him then. With a yawn, Noya rolled onto his side and slipped his hands to rest at the juncture of Asahi’s shoulders and neck. “Wanna kiss you.”

Asahi’s smile lit his entire body. He leaned down and complied. 

When he had kissed Asahi on the basketball court, Asahi had been shy and sweet and pliant, but not entirely prepared. The whole thing had been over too fast. Asahi now was still all those things, but he was also ready. He planted his hands carefully on either side of Noya so as to not crush him and kissed him, slow and deep. When he pulled back, possibly to get his footing, Noya placed a tiny kitten lick at his bottom lip. He whimpered and Noya couldn’t help but smile at the sound. 

Tugging gently at the sides of Asahi’s neck Noya brought him down again to nuzzle at his temple. “Good?”

“Noya...” Asahi breathed and Noya imagined he could feel Asahi’s face heat against his skin. 

He slackened his grip and leaned back to give Asahi some space, to gage his reaction. “Look. Tell me if this is moving too fast, but I really want you to get up on this couch and make out with me.” 

Asahi's hand came up to the back of his neck, to his piercing. _Tactile,_ Noya remembered. Slowly, he nodded. “I want to.” 

Noya inhaled, feeling the ' _fuck yeah'_ through his whole body. “Get up here then.” 

Noya was not the kind of guy who was opposed to one-night stands, to fooling around with strangers. But for all the people who had a hard rule against that kind of thing, he had to say; he got it. Fooling around was fun, sure. But that’s all it was, fun. Kissing someone you really liked? Un-fucking- _real_.

Asahi was planting himself carefully over Noya, smiling wryly at him as they had to resituate. Most of his weight went onto his knees, and then he was cupping the side of Noya’s head in one large hand and leaning down to kiss him again. Noya hadn’t been this excited to kiss someone in _years._ The post-massage relaxation was adding a sleepy haze to it, that made the whole thing feel extra sweet and soft, like they were kissing first thing in the morning. Asahi was clearly figuring this out, how much he wanted from this maybe, so Noya let him set the pace, slow and languid.

Asahi shifted, pulling back a little, maybe for breath. Noya let his hands fall from Asahi’s neck onto the cushions so Asahi could sit back if he had to. Asahi was panting a little, cheeks flushed. The way he was staring down at him made Noya feel like a million pretty cliches.

“ _Wow_ ,” Asahi whispered. Noya laughed. He was happy. 

“Wow,” he agreed. “You wanna keep going?”

“Yeah,” Asahi said, already moving back into Noya’s space. His hands slipped up Noya’s bare arms, leaving goosebumps along the soft undersides. Noya’s hands were up around his head and Asahi’s own hands slipped into them, lacing their fingers together. He was probably doing it to be a sweetheart, just because he wanted them to hold hands, but it had the added bonus of pinning Noya to the couch. 

Noya purred against Asahi’s mouth. _Hot damn._

If Asahi had been a different kind of person, Noya would have objected to getting held down. He never reacted well to his partners trying to control him. But as it was, he was dead sure that all it would take was a single word to get Asahi to stop. Hell, all Noya would probably have to do was push up against their joined hands for Asahi to take it as a protest and back off immediately, apologizing. He absolutely didn’t take Noya’s size as a sign of submission, and that allowed Noya to feel completely at ease, muscles staying relaxed even as he was being forced down into the cushions. 

Asahi did ease off of his own accord soon anyway, perhaps conscious of straining Noya’s arms. He planted his weight on his own forearms and the slight shift gave them a little break, giving Noya just enough presence of mind to draw his knees up so Asahi couldn’t bring them hip-to-hip. If that happened, Noya was gonna have a problem. 

Eventually, he had to plead for mercy anyway, his body slipping from its lazy heat to something decidedly more intense with Asahi’s presence over him. Noya tapped his palm against Asahi’s shoulder insistently and Asahi pulled back. 

“Noya?”

“Good,” Noya assured him. “That was really good but uh.” He pushed again and Asahi sat back, allowing Noya to slide out from under him. “Just figured we should stop before I get too worked up, you know?

Asahi was blinking at him, expression hazy, like it was taking him a minute to find his focus. “Oh,” he said, sounding almost disappointed. And then with another blink, he seemed to realize, “ _Oh._ ” And his face went red, as if his body was now the one getting overheated. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all good,” Noya told him, reaching out to pat him on the shoulder again. “It’s just like I told you, right? _You’re_ the sexy one.” He watched Asahi smile at that, maybe in spite of himself. “I just don’t want you to see me get hard and feel like I expect you to deal with it.” 

“I, uh. I.” The expression on Asahi’s face suggested that he was trying to articulate several thoughts at once. “Okay,” he settled on finally. “That’s probably good.” The smile he offered Noya was so grateful that Noya felt relieved to have called this off before his body made things awkward. “So, what now?”

“Well-lll.” Noya swung his legs over the side of the couch. “If you still have some time, let me show you the Bad Movie Collection.” He approached his tv with something like a spring in his step.

“The what?”

“It’s my and Ryuu’s pride and joy. We’ve curated it for _years._ ”

“Sounds interesting?”

“Oh yeah.” Noya grinned. “Interesting _and_ impressive. Get over here and take your pick.”

They resettled on the couch for the movie, Asahi folding up his towel and putting it back into his bag. The movie Noya had picked was a supposedly a kung-fu movie, featuring aliens, the military and a deeply incoherent plot. Also an American actor named Nicholas Cage. At some point in the course of the movie, Noya slung his feet up into Asahi’s lap, nestling his back into the armrest. Asahi huffed around a small smile.

“You cool with this?” Noya asked just to check.

“I want to tickle you,” Asahi admitted. “But I won’t.” 

“Asahi-san is very kind.” Noya wiggled his toes, baiting.

Asahi just huffed again and placed a hand on Noya’s ankle. His smile spread and he looked back at the tv.

When Noya was in bed later that night, he imagined them waking up together in Noya’s room. He imagined crawling up Asahi’s body, this time to settle himself on his chest and kiss him breathless. He liked picturing Asahi’s long hair fanned out over Noya's pillows, his hands fisting in Noya’s sheets. He imagined smoothing his hands over Asahi's face, kissing his cheekbones as Asahi let Noya into his body. He would soothe Asahi’s whimpers and noises, telling him “ _It’s okay, I’ve got you Asa-san_ ,” until Asahi was trembling sweetly beneath him.

Noya’s body held that same languid warmth as he drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be moving to updating once every other week, just fyi. :) More sustainable.  
> The movie Noya shows Asahi is called Jiu Jistu, for the love of God, imbibe your favorite unhealthy substance of choice and watch it. I was in a fugue state the entire time.  
> Edit: This chapter now has [ art!](https://interstellarhitchhiker.tumblr.com/post/640367059067387904/noya-gets-a-massaaaaaaaaggggeee-from-asahi-in-the) Thank you interstel!!


	13. Sleepover

Noya was a genius. He was a genius and his genius brain was about to turn this weekend into the best weekend ever. “Listen, Asahi-san,” he told Asahi’s voicemail. “Great idea; we should have a sleepover. Not in a sexy way! Just like in those teen movies, you know? Like we’ll stay up late and talk about boys and eat junk food or whatever. Anyway, no worries if you don’t want to but it’ll be super fun and this is basically the best idea I have ever had in my life, ‘kay, bye-eee!” Hanging up, he slid his phone onto the breakroom table and tucked his hands behind his head.

He and Asahi worked completely opposite schedules. Asahi worked 8:00-4:00 p.m. and Noya worked 4:00-12:00 a.m. This meant they only could call each other on their lunch breaks and could only see each other on the weekends. But Noya had managed to find a positive spin on it, as he had on most things in his life. Their schedules made it feel like every available space in his life was getting crammed with his favorite stuff. Every waking moment was either filled with his job or his boyfriend. Life was good.

“That Asahi-san?” Ryuu asked, coming in. He had a boxful of donuts from the place everyone liked down the street. “You tell him about the sleepover?”

“Yeah, I just got his voicemail though.” 

“Well if he doesn’t like it—”

“He’s gonna,” Noya put in.

“‘Kay but we should still have a sleepover with all of us sometime. How cool would that be?”

“The coolest,” Noya agreed, reaching for a donut as Ryuu set the box on the table. “You and I've never even had a sleepover. Not a real one anyway.”

“Yeah there were only those times you slept over if your guys’ parents were out of town or whatever.”

“Yeah.” Noya’s donut had blueberry icing. It was good, and he spent a moment debating if he could snag the second one in the bo without looking like an asshole. “Like we still had to go to school the next day.”

“Yeah.” Ryuu sat down across from him, fishing out a donut of his own. “If we got a bunch of people we could maybe do it at our place? Since we’ve got the split level apartment.”

“Good ideas, keep ‘em coming.” Ah, the coffee pot was done. Noya got up to make them both a cup.

“We’ll bring Nii-san too so Kiyoko doesn’t have to be the only girl. And maybe her bestie.”

“Love it. Oh, Asahi-san should bring Dai-san and Suga-san. Then it’ll be a real party.” 

“We should have pillow fights.” Ryuu’s cheeks puffed like a chipmunk around his food. “They always have pillow fights in teen movies.”

“And we gotta listen to a lot of 90’s music.” Noya drummed his fingers, trying to think what else. “I think one of us needs to wear pink pajamas too.”

“I have pink boxers, does that work?”

“Totally works,” Noya confirmed. “I think I have a pink shirt somewhere?”

“Yo. My brother.” Ryuu reached across the table and took his hand. “We should match.”

“We _should_ match,” Noya gasped. This was the best idea. “We totally have to match!”

Apparently Kiyoko and her assistant Chiyori had been standing in the doorway, watching them for a while now. “Do you remember when they used to have separate thoughts?” Chiyori asked.

Kiyoko smiled. “No.”

\-- 

Asahi showed up to his door on Friday night with a huge pillow under his arm, his hair up in a topknot, his overnight things in his backpack. Noya greeted him with the usual overflow of enthusiasm.

“Come on in! Is that a body pillow? No way, lemme see. Who’s on it?”

“No one’s on it!” Asahi protested with a laugh. “It’s for my posture when I’m sleeping.”

“Oh, to keep your knees apart or whatever,” Noya said. One of his old trainers in college had talked about that kind of thing. “Here, let me take your things. We can put it on the couch for now. That okay?”

“Oh yes, that’s fine.”

“You ever think about getting a body pillow with something on it? Not like a person!” he hastened to add because Asahi was already getting that look on his face. “I’m just saying, I bet they make ones with puppies and stuff on them.” And he laughed at the way Asahi’s eyes went wide. That had clearly never occurred to him before. “We can look it up later," he promised.

Asahi hummed happily. “Okay. Oh also,” he handed Noya what appeared to be a blank business envelope. “My mom said to give this to you.”

“What is it?” Noya accepted it curiously, poking his hand inside.

“It’s an article about your show. She said she found it in a tourist magazine for the city?” Asahi looked sheepish. “Sorry. This is what she does sometimes. Now that she knows we’re dating…”

“Hey don’t apologize, I love this.” Noya beamed up at him. “This is what moms do right? Mine sent me the article too.” The need to send him article clippings was kinda funny as far as Noya was concerned. Of _course_ he knew the article was going out. The tour magazine had had to get permission from their publisher to even _write_ the freaking thing.

“Ah, if your mom sent it to you already you don’t have to keep it.”

“Nope, totally keeping it. I’m gonna hang them right next to each other.” Noya studied the picture in the clipping. The magazine had gone with a picture of him and Ryuu on either side of Kiyoko, grinning impishly as their hands shielded her face from view. It was one of the promo shots they’d taken for the start of the season that the photographer had said was supposed to show Kiyoko as the faceless voice off-camera or something.

“So you told your mom about us?” he said, taking Asahi’s body pillow from him to lay it out on the couch. “How’d it go?”

“Okay.” Asahi set his backpack down on the couch too, fiddling with the handle as he spoke. “We’re not great with words as a family,” he admitted. “So she does things like this to let me know she’s okay with it.”

Noya smiled. “Hey, she’s my basketball buddy. She has to be cool with me right?”

Asahi laughed softly. “Right.” He opened up the main pouch of his backpack. “Oh, I brought some movies,” he said. “Since you showed me some movies you liked last time, I mean.”

“Ooh, whadda we got?” Noya appeared in his personal space, looking over his shoulder. Asahi produced an old grocery bag and began to pull DVD cases out, hanging each to Noya in turn. A pattern was emerging very quickly. “Are these all romcoms?” he asked, looking at Asahi with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, they are.” Asahi smiled cautiously. “I looked up a list of romance movies that people like even if they don’t like romance? I looked on the internet, and then I went to the library to check them ou—”

“Stop, _stop,_ ohmigod stop,” Noya said. He brought up his hands to cup either side of Asahi’s face, grinning like a loon. “You gotta stop.” Asahi was permissive in his surprise and Noya took the opportunity to kiss his nose.

“Noya?” 

“Have I told you lately that you are really fucking cute? And also a total old man?”

Asahi made a sound that was almost a huff of annoyance. Noya continued to hold his face, taking the opportunity to squish his cheeks a little. And then it was Noya’s face being held while Asahi pushed forward and kissed him once, incredibly sweet, right on the mouth. “Shush,” he said, voice prim as he pulled back.

Noya was sparkling at him probably. “Okay.” Then he stepped back out of Asahi’s space because he had promised this wasn’t going to be a sexy sleepover and starting off with a makeout would probably set the wrong tone. “Show me the movies.”

He had to admit to himself, as they spread the DVDs out over the coffee table, that Asahi’s internet list had been onto something. A lot of these plots had, well, plots. Now, Noya wasn’t about to knock anyone for liking kissy movies, not too much anyway. Hell, Tanaka Saeko was probably the toughest, coolest person he knew and she _loved_ sappy movies. Still, for Noya’s own personal tastes, he liked something else to focus on other than who was going to be smooching in about 90 minutes.

“Do you even _like_ ghost movies?” he asked, holding up one whose plot described hauntings and near-death experiences. 

“That one’s about as much as I can handle,” Asahi admitted. 

“Maybe we should watch it then,” Noya said, examining the synopsis once more. “That way I can know where your limit is, right?”

“It’s a good movie,” Asahi said. He began to gather the others into a neat stack. “We could watch it.”

“Let’s do it.” Noya had never been one to enjoy waffling between a bunch of options anyway. “Oh before I forget, what do you wanna do for dinner?”

“What are the options?” Asahi tucked his backpack aside. 

“Here, I keep a bunch of takeout menus, I can show you.”

“Do you ever cook for yourself?” Asahi’s voice was extra cautious. 

“Sometimes? I can’t make anything fancy though.”

“Can I cook for you sometime?”

Noya’s head whipped around, his body paused in the middle of digging his take-out menus from the junk drawer. He stared at Asahi through the kitchen’s half-wall. “ _Can_ you?” he asked. “Like, am I gonna say ‘no?’”

“Well, I don’t know,” Asahi mumbled. “I don’t want you to be offended that I’m offering.”

Noya tried and failed to conceive of being offended by this. “ _Please_ cook for me, Asahi-san. I can cook for you sometime too, as long as you don’t get your hopes up.” He shuffled the stack of take-out menus together and thought. “Do you like pancakes?” Breakfast was easy enough to make. And who didn’t like a big breakfast anyway? “I could make you breakfast tomorrow.” Come to think of it, wasn’t that like, a requirement of sleepovers? Good thing he’d had the idea now. 

“You don’t have to,” Asahi began to protest. 

“Nope, too late. Idea’s locked in.” Noya flashed him a grin and headed back into the living room to show him all the options. “Besides, we just agreed you’re going to be cooking for me too at some point, right? So we’re gonna be even in the end.”

“I...guess that’s true,” Asahi admitted. 

“Totally true.”

Asahi struggled to pick between the ten or so take-out menus Noya offered him, maybe a little overwhelmed by the amount of choice. In the end, Noya pulled out his three favorites and had Asahi pick between those. Asahi closed his eyes and out plucked the brochure for a soba place down the street.

“Perfect,” Noya told him. “I’ll order once we start getting hungry. Let’s get that movie in.” Tucking the rest of the take-out menus away, he led Asahi back to the couch.

The ghost plot, Noya had to admit, was kinda interesting. There was a lot more attempted murder than your usual romcom. He could appreciate a little gore and suspense. He could also appreciate any movie that made him yell aloud. 

“Watch out—ahh!” He sat bolt upright as love interest narrowly avoided being hit with a car. 

“It’s okay!” Asahi’s hand flew to his forearm as if concerned that Noya had been actually upset. He himself had picked up his body pillow sometime during the watch, and was now holding it to his chest. He was watching the movie with rapt attention, even though he’d apparently seen it before.

“Should we do that?” Noya asked, pointing as the scene changed. “Set up a tent in the living room and hide from ghosts?”

Asahi smiled tolerantly. “Maybe next time.”

And when the love interests finally kissed at the end, Asahi was actually tearing up. Noya grinned. _He really is a romantic, huh._ Leaning over, he planted a loud, smacking kiss on Asahi’s cheek. 

“What was that for?” Asahi asked, the unshed tears clumping his eyelashes a bit. He cupped his cheek in surprise.

“You just looked like you needed one.” That earned him a smile.

When the movie was done, they ordered soba, migrating to the kitchen to re-consult the menu. “What would you do if I was being haunted by a ghost?” Noya asked after he’d placed their order. This place had been a good pull on Asahi’s part. The food wouldn’t even take half an hour. “Would you still date me?” 

“Is the ghost still your best friend?” Asahi asked. “I can’t picture Ryuu ever trying to kill you.” 

“Yeah, Ryuu wouldn’t hurt me like that.” Noya had hopped up onto the counter at some point. He kicked his legs against it as he thought. “‘Kay, I guess it would have to be just some random ghost.”

“Well, that would be pretty scary,” Asahi admitted. He was leaning his back against the counter, arms crossed over his chest as he thought. He was also watching Noya out of the corner of his eye and had been doing that on and off for like the past five minutes. It was kinda shifty actually. Maybe talking about getting haunted was getting to him? Noya nudged him with his foot.

“Hey. We don’t have to talk about ghosts if you don’t wanna.”

“No, it’s okay!” Asahi looked at him. And then looked away. “We can.”

“Real convincing there, Asahi-san.” Noya took advantage of Asahi’s turned back to run a finger between the barbell on his neck. Asahi startled, and then visibly shivered. It had the effect of getting him to turn and look at Noya over his shoulder though, which was what Noya was going for.

“You’re a lot taller like this,” Asahi admitted softly. Noya could see the back of his neck burning.

“What?” Noya asked. “On the counter?” That was true. He was eye-level with Asahi when he sat up here. 

Asahi didn’t answer him, just nodded. He had gone from barely looking at Noya to watching him shyly.

“Is that doing it for you?”

The flush went from the back of his neck up his cheeks. _Bingo_. “It’s just.” Asahi made a vague gesture that seemed to encompass Noya’s entire body. “Your face is a lot closer like this.” 

Noya’s eyebrow ticked upwards. He could feel the mischievous expression as it spilled across his features. “And you like my face.” 

“Yeah.” Asahi moved with caution, turning his body slowly, telegraphing his intentions with every limb, like he was waiting for Noya to stop him. Instead Noya spread his knees, willingly Asahi between them. He planted his hands on the counter by Noya’s hips. “It’s a nice face,” he murmured shyly, almost anxiously, like he was worried Noya was gonna laugh at him for the admission.

Noya just smiled instead, planting his hands on Asahi’s shoulders. “Sweet talker.” And Asahi kissed him.

It was different than on the couch. Being pressed down by someone was always a very different atmosphere than when you were sitting up, practically nose-to-nose with them. There were similarities too though. There was that slow, sweet, methodical pace again, the one that seemed to come naturally to Asahi. Noya followed it, even as his brain was getting fuzzy and his body was starting to ask for more. There were two Noyas almost, one of them the horny teenager, getting hot and bothered and aggressive, and the other his mature brain, trying to let Asahi set the pace. He took the liberty of using his hands on Asahi’s face to coax his head into a new angle every now and then. Mostly though, he just let himself drift along with the ride, let Asahi decide how he wanted to use his tongue, if he wanted to suck on his bottom lip. 

It felt way too soon before the door buzzer rang. They both jumped. Asahi pulled back. 

“ _Damn_ son,” Noya whispered. 

Asahi laughed. “Good?” he asked like he couldn’t stop himself. His hands brushed up Noya’s sides and when he smiled, the look on his face wasn’t an anxious one. The gesture, as his hands continued up to smooth Noya’s hair wasn’t hesitant. It made Noya’s heart swell—Asahi just seemed _comfortable._

“Super good,” Noya assured him. Asahi stepped back and he hopped off the counter to go answer the door. 

They sat around Noya’s kitchen table as Noya regaled Asahi with stories from his college days. Asahi was an attentive listener, shocked and awed in all the appropriate places. He asked tons of questions, giving Noya plenty of chances to expand on his thoughts, a sure way to the heart of any talkative person.

“I mean, I _know_ what footsies is,” Asahi was protesting on this particular occasion. “But I thought no one actually played it. I thought movies made it up.”

“Hey now, Asahi-san,” Noya teased, kicking at Asahi’s foot under the table. “To each their own. Don’t kink-shame.”

“I’m not!” Asahi spooned some of the broth into his mouth and thought. “It’s just...What do you get out of playing it?”

Well, there was a tab on most porn sites called ' _f_ _ootjobs'_ but Asahi probably didn’t need to know that. Noya slurped some broth of his own, thinking. “I guess it’s like...‘we’re paying attention to each other while we’re doing other things,’ you know?”

Asahi considered this. “That’s...really cute?”

“Right? We should try it.” And he laughed when Asahi wrinkled his nose at him. “What’s that look for?”

Asahi shook his head. “Nothing.”

“You sure?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

“Try me.”

“It’s just.” Ah, there went a blush. The faint pink one, his demure one. Noya should start naming them. He loved them all. “I think we already do a good job of paying attention to each other.”

“Damn right we do," Noya agreed, grateful for his own inability to blush. "But imagine we’re sitting here, and I’m talking to Ryuu or someone. But I still want your attention too, yannow?” He nudged Asahi’s foot again to emphasize his point. Then, “What?” because now Asahi’s smile had a quirk of amusement.

“You would have been a good salesman.”

“You saying I make a strong case?” Noya wiggled his eyebrows. 

“You’re very persuasive.”

“It’s a gift. By the way,” Noya continued, reaching for his drink. “So I’m curious. You dated in college, right?”

“Yes, but only a little.”

“You’re not into physical stuff right? How far did you go?” 

“Some kissing,” Asahi admitted. “But I didn’t kiss everyone I dated.”

“Who was your first kiss?”

“Ah.” And Asahi went red. Not demure red. Juicy red. Noya perked in interest. “...Suga,” he admitted.

“ _No way_ ,” Noya breathed. “Really? Suga-san?” He leaned across the table, radiating excitement. “Was this before he and Dai-san were dating?”

“It was actually when they were, um, dating already. But it’s not what you think!” Asahi hastened to add, Noya’s eyes going wide as saucers. “Daichi knew about it the whole time! He was right there when Suga kissed me.”

Now _there_ was a story. “Okay you gotta tell me this,” Noya said. 

“Ah. Well.” Asahi was fiddling with his chopsticks again. Noya watched his long, square fingers hold them apart and transfer them back to one hand. Apart. Together. Apart. Together. “I went to a party with Suga and Daichi and everyone was playing this game called Seven Minutes in Heaven…”

“I know that game!” Noya laughed. “I can’t believe you played it!”

“I only agreed because I didn’t know what it was,” Asahi said. “I even asked ‘Is it like Spin the Bottle? And someone said, ‘No it’s not Spin the Bottle.’”

Noya shrugged. “I mean...I guess it’s _technically_ not?”

“But it’s a kissing game!”

“It sure is.”

“So, once I realized that people would get locked in a closet to kiss, I excused myself pretty fast…” Noya watched Asahi’s gaze get a little distant as he remembered. 

Asahi had found Daichi and Suga, mingling in the kitchen, he explained. He had taken them aside and told them he probably should just go home. His two friends hadn't been satisfied with that, demanding to know what had happened.

“It was just that, everyone always makes such a big deal out of kissing,” Asahi told Noya, haltingly. There was so much pressure to have had the first kiss by a certain age, to have a story when someone asked. Now that Asahi was, at the time, nineteen and unkissed, he had felt stupid for waiting, for wanting it to be special.

“Asahi, are you serious?” Suga had asked. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting your first kiss to be special.” 

“I just wish I knew what to expect,” Asahi had admitted. “I know I’m gonna mess it up.”

Suga and Daichi had exchanged a _look._ “We’ll be back,” Suga had said, effectively putting Asahi’s anxiety through the roof. 

Daichi, perhaps cognizant of this fact, had put a firm hand on Asahi’s shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay Ace,” he’d said. “Just give us five minutes.” And then they disappeared down the hall, leaving Asahi to stew in a fit of his own nervousness. He’d spent those five-plus minutes wrestling with his own mind.

 _They did not just leave to have a talk about what a huge virgin you are,_ he’d told himself sternly, even as his stomach was tying itself in knots. _Suga would just call you a virgin to your face and you know it. And Daichi doesn’t gossip._

He had been on his phone by the time they had gotten back, just to look like he had something to do. He was sweating. Fortunately, this little alcove under the stairs was relatively deserted. 

“Asahi,” Suga had said, pulling Asahi’s attention to him. He came to stand right in front of Asahi’s spot on the wall. “We have an idea for you.” His eyes searched Asahi’s face. “Do you want me to be your first kiss?”

Asahi’s mind had blanked out. “W-what?”

“You want to know what to expect right?” Daichi had asked. “And you want it to be someone who cares about you.”

“Don’t worry,” Suga had added, a familiar twinkle in his expression. “This isn’t leading up to us asking you to have a threesome.”

“O...okay,” said Asahi, who had not even been concerned about that until Suga had raised the possibility. He looked between the two of them, beyond lost. “Is it really okay?” he asked. “Are you making fun of me?”

“We’re not,” Daichi had said firmly. “I promise you.”

Asahi had looked between the two of them again. They had both met his gaze steadily. “Okay,” he’d said finally. “I...I’d rather have that. Than a stranger, I mean.”

Suga had smiled that knowing smile he had. “I knew you would.” He slipped one hand onto Asahi’s shoulder, bringing the other to cup his face. Standing on his tiptoes, he’d kissed him.

“Was he a good kisser?” Noya asked, back in the present.

“...Well, he’s probably better now,” Asahi said politely. Noya burst out laughing. “I just meant! That’s not what I meant!” Asahi raised his palms frantically in some kind of attempt to take his words back.

“Too late!” Noya crowed. “I’m gonna tell Suga-san you think he’s a bad kisser!”

“Noya! I don’t think he’s a bad kisser! I just meant I wasn’t any kind of judge back then! And it was almost a decade ago!”

“Relax, Asahi-san,” Noya said, reaching across the table to pat his arm. “I know what you mean.” He shifted back, resettling himself in his seat. “You guys all look out for each other, huh?”

“Yeah,” Asahi said softly. “We do.” His gaze had dropped to his food for a moment. He gathered another bite into his chopsticks, before looking Noya in the face again. “Do you think that’s weird?” he asked. “Asking one of your friends to kiss you?”

“Nah.” Noya was pretty certain on this point. “I mean that’s what the whole Seven Minutes in Heaven game is anyway right? Plenty of people kiss people they’re never gonna kiss again.” He regarded Asahi carefully. His posture seemed to have relaxed. Noya wondered if some day he was going to be an Asahi Expert, able to read the slightest shift. “So did it help? Him kissing you?” 

Asahi’s smile was sweet and soft. He dropped his eyes and when he blinked, his eyelashes fanned like butterfly wings. (Damn, maybe Noya should’ve considered a career in poetry if Asahi was gonna keep making him feel like this.) “It helped,” he admitted. 

“Then there you go,” Noya told him. “You won Seven Minutes in Heaven without ever playing.”

Asahi looked startled. Then he laughed. “I never thought about it that way.”

“You know,” Noya continued. He had finished his food. He gave his chopstick a long slow drag of the tongue to get the grease off. Asahi watched. “Ryuu and I compared dicks back in high school.”

“ _What?!”_

The conversation progressed as the night did. Noya showed Asahi his impressive selection of alcohol and they drank while they talked. At some point they wound up on the couch, cuddling.

“What would you do if you weren’t a tv host?” Asahi asked. He was lying on his back. Noya’s head was on his chest. 

“I was almost a professional volleyball player,” Noya said. Two empty bottles of win sat on his coffee table.

“What?” Asahi craned his head to look down at him. “Were you really?”

“Yeah.” Noya rested his chin on Asahi’s chest to look up at him better. 

“What changed?”

Noya appreciated the way Asahi’d said it. Not ‘why’d you quit?’ or ‘did you get injured or something?’ but ‘what changed?’ Because that was what happened. Volleyball had started changing for him. He gave the best shrug that he could from his position. Shifting around, he brought his hands up so he could rest his chin on the backs of them, keeping it from digging into Asahi’s skin.

“I guess, what a lot of people don’t get about going pro, is that being an amateur is really, kinda the easiest way to enjoy volleyball? Like, there’s way more politics in going pro than most people realize.”

He watched Asahi’s eyes focus on him. Just listening.

“And I guess there’re politics to being a tv host too but... it’s different? ‘Cause you kind of already know when you go in that you gotta sell your personality. And me and Ryuu are really lucky that our studio likes how blunt we are. It helps when your appeal is that you tell it like it is.” 

He still remembered the awful dread that had started seeping in at the beginning of his third year. People were talking about getting scouted and he couldn’t figure out why it bothered him so much. He had known his team was counting on him to stay positive, so he’d tried to forget it. He’d spent a year and a half trying to ignore the way hearing his teammates talk about 'promotional content' and 'endorsements contracts' made him uncomfortable. It _shouldn’t_ have made him uncomfortable, he thought. Who didn’t want their face on a cereal box? 

Problem was, it seemed a lot of politics went into having your face on a cereal box.

It had all come to a head the day a scout from a V-League team had taken him out of a pub, wanting to talk to him about signing. This guy wasn’t even the only scout who’d wanted to talk to him. The problem was he was the only sucker who’d said exactly the wrong thing.

“You know, Noya,” he’d begun. He had come in knowing that everyone called him ‘Noya.’ He hadn’t even tried to use Noya’s proper name. For some reason, that hadn’t sat well. He leaned into Noya’s space at the pub, a little tipsy. “It was between you and this one other guy. But you’re better looking.” He winked.

If Noya was still eighteen, he would have thought the guy was joking. Hell, he might have even thought the guy was _flirting._ But he was a college senior now and he knew better. Looks were a genuine factor. His teammates talked about it all the time. “ _Of course they pulled Kageyama,_ ” they said. “ _They want to put him on the billboards._ ” Or, “ _Ushiwaka’s like 90% of his team’s promo material. Doesn’t even matter that he’s good. He’s a total smokeshow._ ”

Fucking _looks._ Noya had trained his ass off all through high school and four years of college ball and the thing that had tipped the scales in his favor had been something that he hadn’t even earned. Damn, if they’d sat him down with the “other guy,” whoever that poor bastard was, and made them fucking _arm wrestle_ for it, things would have been more fair. Made them play pool. _Anything._

_Goddamn it._

Noya was glad the scout was tipsy enough to shake off Noya’s total non-response. He’d simply gone back to his drink. It was a really good thing, because Noya had realized he was shaking. 

_Don’t be that guy._ It was the one last desperate link holding Noya’s self-control in place. It was the last remaining thing he cared about. He didn’t care about this scout, he didn’t care that they were in public, he didn’t care about representing the school. The only thing stopping him right now was the fact that he didn’t want to be the kind of 22-year-old man who threw a tantrum.

As all this flashed through his mind, he realized he was staring. 

“Sorry,” he mumbled, sliding off his barstool. “Gotta piss.”

Thank God the bathroom in there had been a single stall. His hands were shaking with anger and frustration as he pulled out his phone and called his old high school volleyball captain. It was after midnight but Chikara had picked up anyway.

“Yuu?” Chikara’s voice was raspy.

“Fuck. Sorry. You were sleeping.” Noya leaned heavily on the sink counter. 

A chuckle. “Surprisingly, I was not.”

Noya had smiled despite himself. “Don’t lie to me Captain, your voice is all wrec—” Then, “OH. _Ohhhh._ ” His smile turned wicked.

“Married people do have sex sometimes, you know.” 

“Sounds fake.” Chikara, the absolute lunatic, had gotten married at the age of 21. His wife was cool as hell though so maybe it figured. Noya had taken another breath. Good, the adrenaline was starting to plateau. “I’m guessing I didn’t interrupt, because if you picked up in the middle of _that_ —”

“Yes, we were done, thanks so much for your concern.” Chikara’s laugh was somewhere between amused and disapproving. Noya couldn’t have recreated that tone if he tried. “Everything okay?”

Noya’s sigh felt had like it was coming from the very bottom of his feet. He flipped through any number of ways he could make it flippant and then thought _what’s the fucking point?_ “No.”

He could picture his old captain sitting up straighter. “What happened?”

“I’m talking to this V-League scout, and I just…I can’t. I can’t do it.” Oh, there went the shaking again. Abruptly, coldly, like he’d been dunked in ice water. He realized he was angry because he was _grieving._

“You can’t do what?”

“Go pro! It’s, Chika, it’s all just fucking _politics!_ It’s like a goddamn popularity contest!” When he ran his hand over his face, it was wet from residue on the sink counter. _Gross,_ he'd thought distantly.

There was a silence from the other end of the line. Noya pictured Chikara taking in this information, processing it in his impartial and steady way. “How long have you been feeling like this?”

“A while.” The admission was heavy. He hadn’t said it out loud to anyone before, not even to Ryuu. He’d barely been able to verbalize it to himself.

Chikara’s answering hum in his ear was somehow completely heartfelt. It was almost a whimper on Noya’s behalf. Noya continued before he could speak.

“Tell me how to walk away from this. Because I don’t…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to get out of here without hitting that guy.” 

He'd heard Chikara take a breath. “That bad huh?”

“Yeah,” Noya said. His voice had rarely sounded so small. “That bad.”

“Okay. Here’s what you’re going to do.” There was that Captain Voice that Noya knew and loved. “Stay on the line with me. Go back out there and tell him something’s come up. Say it’s a family emergency if you have to. What bar are you in? Mizuki’s gonna call you a cab.” 

“She doesn’t gotta do tha—”

“Captain’s orders, Yuu,” Chikara had said firmly. But there was a smile in his voice. “You called _me_ at midnight, the least you can do is listen to what I say.”

Chikara had stayed with him until Noya was safely in the cab. And the next day, Noya had gone to the career center and asked what the hell he could do with a communications degree. 

“How did you feel?” Asahi asked. At some point, his arm had come up to wrap itself around Noya’s shoulders. Noya’s cheek was pressed against his sternum now. Distantly he could hear Asahi’s stomach gurgling. “When you decided your volleyball career was ending?”

“You know,” Noya mused. “After a while, it felt okay? I think I was relieved actually, because it meant that I could go back to going out there and leaving it all out on the court, without having to think about impressing the scouts or some shit.” 

Asahi was listening so intently, Noya could almost feel the force it. _Gurgle, gurgle,_ Asahi’s stomach told him sympathetically. Noya scratched at it gently over Asahi’s shirt. Asahi let him.

“You know what though? I realized I’d found the one thing that was worse than not playing volleyball anymore.”

“What’s that?”

“Not liking volleyball anymore.” How many abuse scandals and drunken parties, how much drama with agents and contract negotiations would it have taken before Noya had started seeing the sport as tainted? Not much more, back then.

He heard the breath Asahi took in through his nose. “That would be a loss,” he told Noya honestly. 

“Yeah.” And then because the alcohol and the talk and their position was making Noya feel warm and hazy, he kissed Asahi’s chest through his shirt, just a gentle peck. Asahi ran a hand through his hair.

“Should we get into our pjs?” Asahi asked him.

“Nope, can’t move.” Noya gave an exaggerated yawn and settled against him more deeply. “We’re stuck.”

“Noya…” Asahi sighed. He didn’t sound put out though. He just rocked up against Noya, maybe testing his deadweight. Noya took a moment to savor the press of Asahi's body against him, before pushing himself up to sit in Asahi’s lap properly. Asahi sat all the way up and studied him. Then he huffed, horse-like and wrapped his hands under Noya’s thighs. “Let’s go.”

“Wha—” Asahi was fully lifting him, picking them both up off the couch. Noya wrapped his arms around his neck instinctively.

“Whoa,” Asahi murmured, taking a stumbling step as maybe the blood rush and the alcohol caught up to him at once. Noya laughed and held on tighter. Asahi righted himself and just stood for a moment, holding Noya up in the middle of his own living room, getting his bearings. Noya cuddled closer to him, burying his face in his neck and purring a long, contented sigh.

“Don’t fall asleep on me,” Asahi told him. “I don’t know where your pjs are.” This last line was so sincere that Noya laughed, a puff against his neck. Goosebumps broke out in its wake.

“I won’t, Asa-chan.” And he placed a tiny peck on Asahi's skin.

Somehow, even though he was already standing still, Noya could tell when Asahi froze. “Oh,” he heard, very softly. Noya smiled to himself, his eyes slipping closed. “Okay,” Asahi murmured, maybe to himself. “Walking.” And then they were moving again, Asahi carrying him towards his bedroom. 

Noya used his foot to nudge the door open as they got close enough, letting them both in. Asahi laid him down on the bed, maybe even more careful than usual to compensate for being slightly tipsy. When he tried to stand back up, Noya fisted his hands in the front of his shirt.

“Hey.”

“Hm?” Asahi’s eyes searched his face.

“You know how you said you were really nervous about kissing? Because you didn’t know what to expect?”

“Yes?”

Noya yanked on Asahi’s shirt a little. He might have been more tipsy than he realized. “If you get nervous ‘bout sexy stuff, you can just ask me okay? I know lots of sexy stuff.”

Asahi’s face crinkled into a smile. The city lights from outside the window caught on the subtle sharpness of his canines. They threw relief over the beginnings of crow’s feet at the corners of his eyes. Noya liked Asahi with crow’s feet, he thought. He’d never met anyone with crow’s feet who wasn’t kind. 

Asahi’s warm, dry palm cupped the side of Noya’s neck. His thumb was still long enough to brush itself along Noya’s cheek. “Thank you,” he said, that same kind smile still in place. “Professor Nishinoya.”

Noya’s heart stuttered a little. He released his hands from Asahi’s shirt and flopped back onto his bed. “Give me like, two minutes and I’ll get your futon out,” he told the ceiling.

“Take your time,” Asahi said. “I can get changed.” 

Noya managed to lay the futon out with only minimal stumbling. And when Asahi came back from brushing his teeth, Noya had changed into his own pajamas and was sprawled out over the guest sheets, grinning up at him. Asahi gave him a small quirk of the lips in return.

“Am I taking your bed?”

“Nah, I just figured some cuddling is in order before we actually sleep.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Absolutely how it works.”

And Asahi laughed softly and let himself down onto the futon next to him. He curled himself towards Noya like a bracket and Noya was happy to tuck his own legs up slightly, fitting himself in the inlet created by Asahi’s long body. They took a moment to just observe each other.

“I might fall asleep on you,” Noya said honestly. “But if that happens, you can just dump me back on my bed, okay? Don’t let me hog the futon all night.”

Asahi shook his head, the motion burrowing his cheek against his pillow. “You’re not hogging anything Noya.” 

“You say that _now_ ,” Noya pointed out. “But you’ve never slept with me before.” 

“I’ve never slept with anyone before,” Asahi said. Noya blinked. Then he snorted. Asahi looked pleased.

Just to be safe Noya reminded him, “We don’t have to do anything,” even as he pulled himself closer, burying his face in Asahi’s chest. What kind of workouts did this man do anyway? He was probably one of those disgusting freaks who could build muscle after one set at the chest press. Asahi’s hand came up to bury itself in the hair at the back of Noya’s head. Noya hummed.

“Noya,” Asahi said. Noya hummed again. “...I want to make out.”

Noya looked up at him. “Yeah?” Asahi nodded. His eyelashes brushed the pillow. _My pillow,_ Noya thought, grinning. M _y pillow, my sheets, in my room._ A literal fantasy come true. The world was giving him so much to grin about lately. He put one hand on Asahi’s shoulder. “Can I climb on top of you?” he asked, watching him like a hawk, looking for any sign of nervousness, anxiety.

Asahi nodded again. “Please.” And Noya pushed him onto his back. 

He kept the kissing slow, even as he swept his hands up Asahi’s body, feeling the muscle and softness through his shirt. “Tell me if I do something you don’t like,” he mumurmed against his mouth at one point. Asahi’s hands were wrapped around his thighs.

“This is good. Noya I—I promise this is good.” And he seemed to mean it because Asahi’s hands came to squeeze at his thighs. They slid higher to his waist, long fingers slipping under his shirt. Noya shivered, letting out a huff of contentment against Asahi’s mouth. 

“I feel like a teenager again,” he confessed. 

Asahi fingers stayed against his bare skin. “What do you mean?”

He took the liberty of kneading at Asahi’s lovely chest as he thought. Really, he’d meant that this kind of over-the-clothes action hadn’t been this exciting since he was eighteen, finally kissing someone at his first college party. That meeting someone on a hookup app felt so transactional compared to this. Even just kissing felt good with Asahi. That really, there was no “ _just”_ about kissing with Asahi. 

Noya didn’t really want to slow their momentum by taking the time to say all this. He liked where they were and trying to explain everything in his head felt as vulnerable as a blister. “I always wanted to get frisky with someone at a sleepover in high school,” he said instead because it was also true. “Or makeout in a coat room or something.”

“Oh.” Asahi gave a breathy little laugh. “Did you ever get the chance?”

“Nah. I had no game in high school.” 

“That seems hard to believe. You have a lot of game.” Asahi’s hands were definitely groping at his waist now, thumbs brushing along his abdomen, fingers tilting towards his ass. Noya gave a breathy laugh of his own. It was somehow ticklish and hot all at once. 

Leaning forward, he nuzzled their foreheads together. “Flattery will get you everywhere, Asa-chan.” Tilting his head he began to kiss down Asahi’s neck, relishing the contented sigh that got him. One of Asahi’s hands left his waist and moved to cup the back of his head in clear encouragement. Pushing his luck, Noya’s tongue came out to lick a short stripe up the base of Asahi’s neck. 

“Oh,” Asahi sighed towards his ceiling. His other hand was running down Noya’s thigh. “Oh.”

“You wear scrubs to work?” Noya asked him.

“Huh?” It sounded a little out of focus. Noya bared his teeth against Asahi’s skin.

“What do you wear to work?”

“P-polo shirt.” Asahi shifted like he was trying to look at Noya’s face. Noya moved back far enough to let him.

“So if I leave a hickey right here,” and he slid his index finger down the wet patch he’d left on Asahi’s neck, “that would be okay?” He watched Asahi’s eyes widen in the dim light. “You can say no,” he added, just to make sure.

“I don’t want to say no.” The honesty was plain in Asahi’s wide dark eyes. Noya smiled, beyond satisfied and kissed him on the nose.

“Sweet.” As he sucked the bruise into Asahi’s neck, comfortable with the ease of long practice, he got to enjoy the sound of Asahi struggling to regulate his breathing. Asahi had let his hair down to sleep and it tickled Noya’s forehead as he worked. It smelled like shampoo and mingled with the smell of Asahi’s skin, the slight musk of his pajamas. Asahi was warm and solid beneath him and the sound of his breathing was so sweet that Noya thought if this was his last night on earth, he would be content to go out with it.

“There,” he breathed finally, pulling himself away. There was just enough light from the outside to see the bruise flushing dark in high contrast to Asahi’s skin. Asahi still seemed to be breathing hard, so Noya rolled off him and tucked him into his side. “How was that?” he asked softly.

“I didn’t realize it felt like that,” Asahi admitted. He turned his head, so his face was mostly hidden in Noya’s neck. “I… I liked it.”

Noya smiled, pleased as a Chesire cat and began to drag his fingers through Asahi’s hair. “Good, 'cause there's more where that came from.”

Asahi’s hand was the one fisting in the front of Noya’s shirt this time. “Okay.” it came out in almost a whisper.

And when Noya finally fell asleep, Asahi didn’t kick him out of bed. When he woke up the next morning Asahi was asleep beside him, curled towards him in that same bracket pose, one palm resting on the pillow by his head. Noya kissed it lightly and then got up to go make breakfast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. [is immediately seized by the urge to write a spin-off work where everyone has a sleepover]  
> 2\. The movie they watch in this chapter is a Korean one called "Chilling Romance" or "My Girlfriend Can See Ghosts."  
> 3\. I played sports in high school and these days I think a lot about the things wrong with the world of professional sports. This is my take on Noya's departure from volleyball.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	14. Mango Flavor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't seen a lot of fic get into the paint on the kinds of protection available so here's my two cents on that. Mileage may vary of course, each couple is different.

Asahi had been waiting to catch Daichi alone. It wasn’t easy since it wasn’t too often that they were in the house without Suga. Asahi loved Suga to pieces but, well… Suga had a tendency to tease and while Asahi was usually okay with it, he didn’t want to get teased about this. This was newborn and raw. 

Lucky for him, Suga had to stay late for a department event one night that week. Asahi and Daichi had decided to order pizza for dinner and watch game shows on tv. Asahi had never told his friend, but he liked the way Daichi sat when they were next to each other, often putting his arm up along the back of the couch or on the back of Asahi’s chair. Maybe it was silly but it made Asahi feel safe. It made him feel like as long as he was with Daichi, people would respect him. 

“Daichi,” he said during a commercial break. Then he hesitated. He had rehearsed what he wanted to say but getting it out was still awkward. “I…I need, could you give me some advice?”

Immediately, Daichi reached for the remote and muted the tv. “What’s up?” 

“I want to ask about, um. Sex.”

Daichi’s eyebrows rose ever so slightly. “Oh. Okay.” He turned, settling himself in the corner of the couch, facing Asahi more fully. “What’s on your mind?”

Asahi had written his questions out in preparation for this. Not that he would ever embarrass himself by bringing out the list in front of Daichi but it had helped him to be able to picture that list now. “Isn’t sex...you know, really messy? And weird?”

“Very weird,” Daichi agreed. The ease with which he said it made something in Asahi’s chest unspool. “You get used to it but if you think about the mechanics for any time at all, you gotta admit, it’s damn weird.” 

“Oh. That’s good.”

Only one of Daichi’s eyebrows went up this time. “‘That’s  _ good? _ ’” he repeated.

“Well, I just mean, you and Suga have been together so long and you have a good, uh, sex life, so it makes me feel better to know you still think sex is weird.”

“Ohhh. I gotcha.” Daichi relaxed more deeply into the couch. One of his arms had come to rest along the back again. “Yeah, I mean, the more you have sex, the more you become aware of how weird it is. But you’ll get used to it too.” He studied Asahi closely, drumming his fingers thoughtfully against the fabric. “I guess you feel a lot of pressure huh, never having done it before.”

“Yes,” Asahi agreed, feeling miserable.

“Well maybe it’ll take the pressure off if I tell you that the secret to good sex is not taking it too seriously. I don’t necessarily think you’re ever going to need this advice, but it’s what I told my siblings; don’t get into bed with someone you can’t laugh with. Like Suga says, sex involves a lot of butt stuff. That’s inherently pretty silly. You gotta be able to laugh about it.”

Asahi felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. “Noya makes me laugh.” He said it almost to himself.

Daichi smiled. “I know he does.” He shifted a little, bringing his ankle to hook over his knee. “As for messy, well. Yeah, that’s true too, but we also live in the golden age of sex technology. Any way you want to have sex now, we have protection for it. Do you know what dental dams are?”

Asahi blinked. “Like...at the dentist?”

“I mean yeah, but in the context of sex.” Daichi shifted again, getting to his feet. “Come on. Let me show you.” 

Asahi followed, feeling like a high schooler about to see dirty magazines for the first time. Awkward and intrigued. Daichi led him into the room he shared with Suga. Asahi was well familiar with it by now, the small bookcase full of books on education and pedagogy, Suga’s masters degree propped up on a floating shelf, hidden behind a small statue of lovebirds that Asahi had made. (It was one of the first things he’d ever made with clay. He’d begged Suga to throw it out, protesting that he was much better at sculpting now. Suga had refused.) There was a small picture frame on Daichi’s nightstand that said  _ “Always kiss me goodnight” _ which Suga had made fun of him endlessly for before insisting on keeping it. Daichi walked to his nightstand now and pulled open one of the drawers. Asahi tried not to shuffle while he dug something out.

“Here,” Daichi said, holding up a small square of rubber. “Take a look at this.” He handed it over.

It did look like what they used at the dentist, Asahi noted with mild bemusement, turning it over and over in his fingers. “What is this for?”

“Well the most common purpose is for cunnilingus,” Daichi said. He watched Asahi for a moment before turning back to the drawer and rummaging for something else. “Suga and I use them for anal oral though.”

“Excuse me?”

Daichi threw a grin over his shoulder. “Eating ass, Asahi.” 

He chuckled as Asahi’s face went up in flames. 

Drawing a box out of the drawer, he showed it to Asahi. “Those ones are berry flavored. We also had a pack of mint flavored ones at some point but Suga liked that one way better than me. My point is,” he continued, stowing the box away again. “Yeah, there’s a lot of bodily fluids involved in sex but to you have a degree of control over how much you want to deal with them.” Asahi watched his eyes take on a teasing glint. “You know,” he began. “They say we’ve even solved the great spitting-versus-swallowing debate.”

Asahi’s body, which had been mildly warm during this whole conversation, had another flare of heat. His thoughts were inevitably leaping to Noya. Noya, who almost  _ certainly _ had thoughts on spitting-versus-swallowing. “What,” he licked his lips. “What did we decide?” 

Daichi’s grin had distinctly Suga elements now. He took another box out. “Flavored condoms.” He handed this box over for Asahi to examine. 

“Mango flavored,” Asahi noted. He needed to have something to say.

“Yeah. Suga likes the watermelon ones too. Oh, look at this.” Crouching down, he opened the last drawer and reached into the very back. “We bought a five-pack forever ago and these banana flavored ones came with it and they are the nastiest thing I have ever tasted.” The package, as he held it up, looked almost untouched. “They expire…” He looked at the top for the date. “Yeah, they expire later this year. We are  _ really  _ excited to finally be able to throw them out.”

“Why don’t you throw them out now?”

“Well,” Daichi pointed out reasonably. “That would be wasteful, right? We keep them as emergency supplies, mostly, but I think aside from the initial taste-test we’ve used them once. And that wasn’t for oral.”

“O-oh.” Asahi looked down at the mango-flavored box in his hands with more curiosity. So. So even Daichi and Suga still used protection even after so many years together. A feeling of pressure Asahi hadn’t been able to identify was easing off his shoulders. “Do you. Um.” There were too many questions he wanted to ask next, all of them embarrassing.

“Do you want to take a condom or two?” Daichi offered, interrupting his thoughts. “Not that you have to use them right away. Just…You like to feel prepared, right?”

“Oh.” Asahi nodded down at the box. Delicately, he lifted the flap and reached inside. “Thank you.”

“Anytime. Did you have another question?”

“Is…” He hesitated. A small part of him worried that Daichi would be offended by him even asking, but he forced himself to remember that Daichi didn’t take offense easily. “Is it ever gross? Oral?”

Daichi’s dark eyes were thoughtful. “Sure,” he said easily. “We’re only human. We all like different things. Not everyone wants cum on their face or in their mouth, and even if your partner is trying to be mindful of that, accidents happen.”

“Has…” Asahi stopped himself, debating if he even wanted to know this about his two closest friends.

“Has that ever happened to me?” Daichi asked with a kind smile. Asahi nodded. “It’s gotten in my hair a few times. That was pretty gross.” He stroked his chin, considering. “I think what people don’t emphasize enough about sex is that sex is about accepting each other. We’re humans with bodies that do gross things sometimes. Sure, I hate getting cum in my hair. But I still love Suga and want to have sex with him even though he’s the one who got it in there.” His face pinked a little at the last sentence and his smile turned wry. Daichi had always been good at laughing at himself.

“Oh,” Asahi said softly. He looked from his friend to the box in his hands, then back. “Oh,” he said again, somewhat helplessly. This felt like a lot to take in. He felt like if he tried to take Daichi’s words and imagine himself and Noya in the same scenarios while Daichi was still in the room with him, he was going to outright explode. “Um,” he began, trying to push forward. “Is there, or are there, or.” He sighed, and rubbed his neck a little. Words were hard. “I feel like a prude even asking it,” he admitted quietly. “I want to be sex-positive. I know I should be.”

“But you’re allowed to have concerns too,” Daichi said. His arms had crossed, and he was leaning back against his dresser. It reminded Asahi of the times he’d visited Daichi in his office and Daichi would lean back against the desk as he expounded on the importance of student nutrition programs. “Being sex-positive is about not shaming people for what they chose to do with their bodies right? But that doesn’t mean you’re not supposed to have questions about your own.”

Asahi nodded again. “I feel like I’m, I don’t know, being cocky even thinking this,” he began. “But if Noya wants to touch me—”

“I feel like Noya’s been pretty clear that he wants to touch you, big guy.” Daichi’s smile had turned a little smug. “He’s been like, the opposite of subtle about it.”

Asahi’s face and body were getting hot again. “I know,” he admitted. “But I’m worried about being gross, I guess. What if I’m too sweaty or too hairy or too...I don’t know, too  _ something? _ ”

Daichi hummed, tilting his head this way and that. Asahi knew his friend well enough to know this meant he was debating what he wanted to say first. “I guess the first thing I’d say is a lot of people like a little sweat. Not everyone does, but for what it’s worth, getting horny  _ does _ make you more into that kind of thing. And secondly, remember how sweaty we could get after volleyball games? You’d still hug me right? I mean, I know I always thought the sweat was a sign of how hard we’d worked together. The sweat in sex feels kind of like that. For me anyway.”

“Oh.” He seemed to be saying that a lot. “I never thought of it that way.”

“And there’s stuff you can add to your grooming regime. Suga—” He cut himself off. The grin he gave Asahi was both knowing and mischievous. “Well,” he started again. “Let me put it this way; I make it a point to keep  _ thoroughly _ washed and trimmed. If you want I can send you a product link later. You’ve probably got as much pubic hair as I do.”

“Probably,” Asahi said faintly. He was desperately trying not to think about needing to keep himself washed and trimmed for, for  _ Noya. _ It was a thought he could revisit later, to mull it over with all the rest. In  _ private. _ He cleared his throat. “I really,” he said quietly, “really am grateful that you talk to me about this stuff.”

“Yeah, of course.” Daichi favored him with that steady, grounded smile. Asahi thought, not for the first time, that the Sawamura parents had known what they were doing when they named him  _ “earth.” _

\- -

“Asahi. Hi,” Kenma said, opening the door to the gallery’s upstairs offices. 

“Kenma this is Nishinoya Yuu,” Asahi said as the door opened wider. “Noya, this is Kozume Kenma and his partner Kuroo Tetsurou.”

Noya shook hands with them enthusiastically. Kenma looked like his arm was being turned into a limp noodle with the force of Noya’s strength. Kuroo flashed Noya a sharp-toothed grin which Noya returned easily and Asahi had the impression of two foxes meeting in a henhouse. “Nice to finally meet the guy who could sweep this one off his feet,” Kuroo said, jabbing his thumb in Asahi’s direction. “Come on, let’s give you the tour.”

“Thanks for having us!” Noya said cheerfully, taking the stairs two at a time behind him.

“Kenma and I started watching your show once we heard who Azumane’s boyfriend was,” Kuroo said. Kuroo was perfectly aware that he had the right to call Asahi by his given name, but he never used it. Really, he almost didn’t need it. Kuroo had a way of making even people’s family names seem casual. “You guys are hilarious.”

“Hey thanks, we do our best,” Noya said. “Working with Ryuu and Kiyoko makes it easy though.”

“I heard you guys don’t have script writers, is that true?” Kuroo asked as they entered the upstairs workshop. “Can I get you anything to drink?” he added. “We have tea, water, and coffee.”

“Tea please,” Asahi said. He was vaguely impressed with Kuroo’s knowledge.  _ He  _ hadn’t even been aware that the show didn’t use scripts. Or maybe it was more accurate to say, he hadn’t been aware that it was unusual that they  _ didn’t. _

“Tea’s good,” Noya said. He looked around the workshop. Asahi watched him take it all in and tried to picture it through his eyes. The drawing boards neatly arranged in the center, the pottery wheel in the back corner, the door off to the right leading to the computer room. Noya, Asahi knew, had no formal artistic training. What he did have, however, was a fierce interest in art as self-expression. Asahi thought of self-expression as an art in and of itself. People like Noya and Ryuu and even Kuroo were fierce practitioners of its discipline, with their wild hair and loud mannerisms. Asahi himself was a more reserved follower.

“So is this what you wanted to show me?” Noya asked, snapping Asahi out of his thoughts. 

“Sort of. You’ll see.” 

Noya pursed his lips. Something in his eyes was curious. “Asahi-san is in a mysterious mood today.”

“I’m not trying to be mysterious at all!”

“Keep your mouth shut long enough and people will think you’re mysterious without having to do anything,” Kenma put in. He was eyeing something on his phone but Asahi had no doubt though that he could see both of them perfectly. Hell, he could probably see Kuroo in the kitchenette. Suga had once said that he would love to get Kenma’s peripheral vision tested, because surely it must have stretched 280° like a deer. 

“What kind of tea would you like?” Kuroo called from the kitchen. “We have green, oolong, and herbal.”

“Green please,” Asahi called back.

“What he said,” Noya echoed. 

“Kenma and I are going to make a piece for the amateur artist exhibition they have coming up,” Asahi said, starting to fidget. “I wanted to show you what we’re working on.”

Noya’s eyebrows jumped. “You do art?”

“Just some sculpture. I’m not very experienced or anything.”

“Dude that is so cool! And they display it in a galley?”

“It’s not that impressive. It’s just at the amateur showcase.”

“Asahi-san.” Noya put both hands on Asahi’s biceps. “Asa-san.” He levelled Asahi with the expression that meant Asahi was about to get Stern Noya.

“Noya?”

“You gotta own it. That is cool as shit.” 

It was impossible not to smile back at those sharp, earnest eyes. Asahi let himself take hold of that. He cleared his throat. “You’re right,” he said, voice firm. “It  _ is _ cool.”

“Cool as shit,” Noya prompted, his fingers tightening on Asahi’s arms.

“Cool as sh-shit.” 

Noya grinned. “We’ll work on it.” A few feet away, Kenma made a sound that might have been a laugh.

“Do you want to see the design we’re working on?” Asahi asked, to cover the fluttering in his stomach. He wondered how long it would take until Noya stopped making him feel like this, if he would ever stop. Daichi said at some point the butterflies did get replaced with something more steady, something deeper.

“Totally.” 

“I have it at my desk,” Kenma said. He tucked his phone away and led them to the desk for gallery employees. He opened the top drawer and pulled out a sketchbook. The page he turned to had another paper taped to it and Asahi recognized it as the one he’d given Kenma, with his own concepts attached. Kenma set the sketchbook down and turned it to face them. “We want this one to be more large scale. To challenge ourselves.”

“That’s so cool.” Noya leaned over to take in the page as he spoke. There was the model of Asahi’s torso, just like they’d used with the last few pieces. They wanted this installation to be the finale of that particular art series, they’d decided. If Noya remembered the news story that they’d been teasing Daichi about at his interview two-odd months ago, these concept sketches would be recognizable to him. Asahi watched his face as it changed from an expression of open curiosity to the furrowed expression that was his thinking face. 

“Hey,” Noya said eventually. His hand was pressed flat on the desk supporting his weight. His head was tilted towards the sketchpad thoughtfully. “Why do I feel like I’ve seen this before? Did you show me this already?”

Wordlessly, Kenma turned to the front inside cover. A picture was taped there, printed off on office paper, Kenma and a certain pop idol standing on the gallery floor, in front of the statue he and Asahi had made. Noya’s eyes slowly widened.

“ _ You  _ made that?” he breathed, looking up at Kenma. Then he frowned again and looked at Asahi. “Or… both of you did?”

“It was a collaboration,” Kenma said.

“Wait.” Noya looked back up at Asahi, eyes gleaming. “Wait, wait, wait. Is that  _ your _ body those statues are based on?”

“I was wondering if you would recognize that,” a smooth voice said, and then Kuroo was back, holding two steaming mugs of tea. “Azumane’s freaking ripped isn’t he?”

“Sure is,” Noya said, accepting his mug with a grin. He looked up at Asahi over the rim. Asahi’s insides fluttered some more. It was a different flutter than the usual anxiety. This was distinctly pleasant. “You sly minx,” Noya told him and Asahi almost dropped his own mug.

“Excuse me?”

“Here you are telling me how cool and famous I am when you have  _ totally _ been in the paper before! Have you seen the  _ memes? _ I still have some saved to my phone!” Kuroo, who had been on the way to the kitchen to retrieve the tea for him and Kenma, cackled, a flare of recognition for what Noya was saying.

Asahi glanced at Kenma helplessly. “There’s memes about us?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kenma said. “Only some of them are funny.”

“I have  _ so many _ saved to my phone,” Kuroo called. “I made an account on a j-pop forum to mine for them.”

Kenma looked up at Asahi flatly. “He’s a menace.” Then he turned. “Come on. I’ll show you the computer program I want us to use.” 

He led them into the computer room, where a long light-wood counter was lined with computers that probably each cost more than a month’s rent on Asahi’s apartment. Kenma had been pushing for the gallery owners to start including more digital medium showcases, apparently. Sitting down at the one computer that had already been turned on, he murmured a quiet, “Be seated,” to the rest of them. 

Asahi pulled out one stool for himself and one for Noya. “Thanks, babe,” Noya said, settling in with an easy grin. Asahi flushed and felt ridiculous for it.

“Guess what?” Kuroo said from where he was sitting on a wheelie stool. “Turns out, I am, in fact, three degrees of separation from the famous Ms. Luna-hime.”

“Really?” Noya asked. His and Asahi’s eyes went wide in tandem. Kenma, still navigating to some program or other seemed entirely unaffected.

“Yup. I know a guy who went to high school with her older brother. Apparently, her legal name is Yamamoto Akane.” 

“No way!” Noya breathed. “That’s so cool.”

“Kuro knows everyone,” Kenma muttered. “It’s unnatural.”

“Noya knows everyone too,” Asahi agreed. He turned himself to focus more clearly on whatever Kenma wanted to show him. 

“I bet you would,” Kuroo said, grinning that cat-like grin. “Tv-star-san.”

“Hey don’t sell yourself short, Kuroo-san.” Noya kicked out his legs and his own stool rolled until he and Kuroo were right beside each other. “I bet you know some cool people too.”

“That I do,” Kuroo said thoughtfully. “...Hey, I have an idea for you.”

“Hit me.”

“Let’s go through our contacts and see if we have anyone in common.”

“Someone’s confident,” Kenma said, eyes still on the computer screen.

Asahi wasn’t sure how that could possibly be fun. “What if you don’t know anyone in common?” he pointed out.

“Then we’ll just pick someone cool and call them up. Boom.” Noya continued to swing his legs as he spoke. “Now we both know them.”

Kuroo’s grin only stretched. “See, I could tell the minute I met you,” he said, placing one long-fingered hand on Noya’s shoulder. “I knew you were a fellow intellectual.”

Noya grinned in return. “Hand over the phone, my fellow intellectual.”

Silence fell on their corner of the room as the two of them scrolled through each other’s contact lists. Asahi settled himself in to study Kenma’s projector program. The idea was to have a physical center to their new piece, with the statue, and include light show effects that would work in tandem with it. “See,” Kenma began to explain. “The program we bought is similar to what they use for Vocaloid live shows.”

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Vocaloid live show,” Asahi admitted.

“I’ll show you after. They can make a much stronger projection than you’d think.”

“Does it take training to make that kind of thing?”

“I’ll be taking a crash course. I’ve been—”

“Ha!” Noya cackled from the corner, causing Asahi to jump. “No way!” He held up Kuroo’s phone to him. “Mori?”

“Yaku!” Kuroo crowed. “You know Yaku?”

“Yeah I played against him in college!”

“I went to high school with him!”

Asahi stared at them, torn between awe and mild terror. “…How did they do that?” he asked faintly.

“Extroverts,” Kenma sighed. He navigated to a new window, a series of concept sketches both of them had contributed. “Is your dad still okay to help us with the mechanisms?”

“He said so.” Their new piece was going to have a kinetic aspect, a turn handle to open the statue into pieces like a puzzle. “He had the suggestion that maybe the handle could flip the switch as well as move the gears? That way we wouldn’t have to play with motion sensors.”

“I’ll talk to our consultant and see what they recommend,” Kenma decided. “Your dad may be right.”

Their quiet conversation turned to discussions of dimensions, color scheme, the number of pieces the statue would break into. (“Not too many,” Asahi said. “I don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.” Kenma hummed in agreement.) In their own corner Noya and Kuroo kept up their own friendly stream of jokes and anecdotes. At some point, there was a scraping of stool legs as both of them stood.

“I’m taking my esteemed colleague to the bakery,” Kuroo announced. “The Hong Kong one, you know it, Kenma.”

“I know,” Kenma murmured. His eyes were still on the screen. Asahi would have been hard-pressed to explain how he knew Kenma’s attention was largely on Kuroo.

“Azumane, you want anything?”

“Oh, it’s not necessary,” Asahi began.

“If you don’t tell me what you want, I’m gonna have to guess,” Noya chimed in.

“Try the mango cake,” Kenma suggested. “It’s good.” 

“I’ll try the mango cake,” Asahi repeated. “Thank you.” It was the week for mango flavored things, he thought, deeply aware of the condom that had been burning a hole in his wallet. Immediately he shook his head at himself. Plenty of adults carried condoms. Just because he never had before didn’t mean it was anything special.

“They get along,” Kenma commented as their two respective partners were out the door like twin hurricanes.

“I’m glad,” Asahi said sincerely. 

“I wanted to ask. How is it going?” Asahi’s body flooded with warmth. Kenma preferred to talk about serious topics over text but Asahi felt better if he could see the facial expressions of the person he was talking to, hear their intonation. The fact that Kenma was asking now meant he remembered that.

“Daichi gave me a condom,” he said, almost before he meant to. Kenma’s eyebrows went up ever so minutely.

“Are you ready to use it?”

“Not ready exactly,” Asahi admitted. “But, well.”

“But you want to.”

“I… yeah.” 

Kenma hummed again. He was looking at a 3D rendering of their concept art now, turning it this way and that, making minute adjustments with his mouse. Asahi had no idea how he could focus like that and still carry a conversation. Asahi himself had never been able to do it. “Noya isn’t demisexual is he?”

“He’s not.” Asahi let whatever Kenma was doing on screen wash over him. It was nice to not have an excuse to look at each other during this. 

“That’s different than me and Kuroo then.”

Asahi looked at him in surprise. “Kuroo is demisexual?”

“He said he probably is.”  _ Click. Click.  _ “Do you feel pressured?”

“To have sex?”

“Mmhm.”

Asahi shook his head. “No, he’s been great. I feel more pressure from my own brain, I think. I want to be good, you know, right from the first time.” Embarrassment bubbled in him at the admission.

Kenma’s eyes flicked to him and then back to the screen. “Nobody’s good the first time.” His tone was almost kind.

“Gee.” Asahi’s smile was self-deprecating. “Way to make me more nervous.”

“He should remember his first time. He’ll know what to expect.” Kenma didn’t look at Asahi, exactly but his head tilted in Asahi’s direction. “Does he know what to expect?”

“He knows I’ve never been with anyone else before, if that’s what you mean?”

“Then you should be fine.” Kenma clicked another button and the 3D rendering appeared in a mock-up of the gallery downstairs. They observed it together as a short animation played, the way they wanted the model to burst apart in an explosion of lights. They were both debating if  _ Happiness _ was too simple of a title. Asahi personally liked the simplicity of it.

“It looks good,” he said after a moment. He meant it.

“Yeah.” Kenma turned in his chair and rose to his feet. “Let me show you the projectors next.” Asahi watched as he wandered over to where there was a main, bureau-style desk at the front of the room. A complicated-looking projector sat there. Kenma pressed a button and it began to  _ whirr _ quietly, maybe warming up. 

“Asahi,” he said quietly as they waited.

“Yes?”

In the dim light of the computer room, Kenma’s eyes as they found Asahi’s were truly uncanny. “I really do think it’ll be fine.”

Asahi’s heart warmed again. “Thank you,” he said. His voice was soft in his own ears. 

By the time Noya and Kuroo returned, they had written down codes for possible corresponding colors in Kenma’s sketchbook. Kenma apparently had some kind of terrifying ability to picture each color based on their code but Asahi had had to find a set of pastels stashed in one of the desks and scribble a swatch next to each code. 

“Kuro,” Kenma demanded abruptly as the man in question walked through the door. “What color is happiness?”

Kuroo took the non-sequitur in stride, the smooth, open expression on his face never wavering. Asahi had known the couple long enough to know that it was a combination of Kuroo’s natural flexibility as well as a practised ease with Kenma’s personality. “Green probably?” he suggested. “Bright green. Or yellow maybe.”

“Hm.” Kenma glanced at Asahi and then back to the computer screen. “Conflicting answers.” Asahi himself had said pink and Kenma had said gold. “Noya?”

“Orange for me.” Noya launched himself into a wheelie chair, allowing it to roll all the way across the room, coming to a perfect stop next to where Asahi still sat at the computer. “Order up, pretty boy,” he said, placing a small plastic bag onto the computer table. Asahi scrunched his nose at him and Noya laughed. 

“So you gonna tell me more about your super artsy concept piece?” he asked, taking a slurp of whatever sugary drink he’d ordered.

“Oh, well,” Asahi hedged. Explaining the concepts behind his pieces always made him feel like a bit of a poser. A pretentious douche who was only pretending he knew anything about art. “Um, Kenma and I both have anxiety and it’s hard sometimes to process strong emotions. So this is about that.”

“And the other ones too?” Noya asked, seeming to get it immediately. When Asahi nodded, he leaned over to see the computer screen better, propping one elbow up onto Asahi’s shoulder to get closer. The combination of his deodorant and shampoo and natural Noya smell was both attractive and oddly comforting. Asahi breathed them in as subtly as he could. “So what’s this emotion? Oh wait, is it happiness?”

Asahi flushed. “Yes,” was all he said. He wasn’t going to try to explain in front of an audience that this collaboration was about him and Kenma trying to express a particular kind of happiness. The kind of happiness that was caused by the two other men in this room. Maybe he could write Noya a special copy of the artist’s statement. Even thinking about saying it aloud made him all fluttery. “We were thinking about pink and gold? But Kenma wasn’t sure.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t sure,” Kenma said. “I said ‘that’s gay.’”

“I have distressing news for you about your own sexuality,” Kuroo said, plunking his chin on top of Kenma’s head. Kenma’s eyebrows pinched in what might have been a frown. 

“Who says I like guys?” he said. He was still staring at the computer Asahi could tell it was more for appearances. His mouse clicked distractedly around the page.

“You like at least  _ one _ guy,” Kuroo said. His arms slipped around Kenma’s neck.

He got an elbow for his troubles. “You’re embarrassing,” Kenma said. Asahi could see, even in the half light of the computer lab, that his ears were pink. “There’s people here.”

“Wait, there’s people here?” Noya asked, craning his neck this way and that. The point of his elbow almost poked Asahi’s neck. 

Kuroo laughed. “You two let us know when you’re done, okay?” he told Kenma. “We’re gonna call up Yaku and bother him.” True to his word, as he slipped back out of the computer lab, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and began to dial. Noya bounded after him.

It took Asahi and Kenma almost another hour to finish discussing materials and expected timelines and other logistics. When they were satisfied and Asahi’s brain was hurting, Kenma tucked his sketchbook back into his desk and they went to fetch Noya and Kuroo. They were all going out to dinner.

“Hey,” Asahi said quietly, taking Noya’s hand to hold him back a little as they left the gallery.

“Hey.” Noya turned towards him immediately. “What’s up?”

“It’s nothing, I just.” Asahi slowed, considering his words. In his peripheral vision, he was aware of both Kenma and Kuroo catching sight of their little moment over their shoulders. They both continued on without comment, Kuroo in the lead, Kenma at his heels.

“I just like knowing that I bring you to meet my friends and I can trust you to get along with them. And you and Kuroo can entertain yourselves if we can’t.” He felt Noya squeeze his hand. He squeezed back. “That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Hey of course!” Noya grinned and started them walking again, swinging their hands between them like a happy little kid. “I gotchu. Besides, Tetsu’s easy to get along with.”

“ _ Tetsu? _ ” Asahi stared. He probably would have stopped walking if Noya hadn’t been leading him along. “He lets you call him  _ Tetsu?” _

“Sure,” Noya said with a grin. “What, what’s the big deal?”

“I don’t even call him that!  _ Kenma _ doesn’t even call him that!”

“Maybe I just like Yuu better,” Kuroo called from where he was unlocking their car. Noya’s laugh rang brightly through the small parking lot. Asahi felt a wash of something unpleasant, jealousy maybe, for the fact that Kuroo was already calling Noya by his given name, but he tamped down on it. He had no doubt that if he asked, Noya would enthusiastically encourage Asahi calling him Yuu. It must have been envy then, since he was too shy to ask and Kuroo clearly wasn’t.

_ Later, _ he promised himself.  _ I’ll ask him later. _

“Anyway,” Kuroo continued, opening the rear passenger door for them. “Pact’s sealed. We did the blood oath and everything. Got the witness signatures.” His eyes twinkled with a wickedly clever humor.

Noya’s weren’t much better. “Sure did,” he said, taking over holding the door so Asahi could get in first. “This man’s blood is in my veins now.” As Asahi crawled past him, Noya swatted his ass. 

“Noya!” Asahi sputtered. Noya laughed, his eyes scrunched up so adorably it was impossible to be annoyed with him. Asahi felt his earlier envy melt like cotton candy in the rain. He thought again of the condom in his wallet. He didn’t know when he would be ready to use it, but a part of him hoped that he’d be ready soon. It was one of those strange human feelings, to  _ want _ to want to take a leap, but not being there yet.

“So  _ Tetsu, _ ” Noya said, settling in to hang off the back of the driver’s seat. His knee came to knock against Asahi’s, oblivious to the effect his mere existence had on Asahi’s entire body. “Where we headed?”

\- -

To: information@tomoedastudio6.com

_ To whom it may concern, _

_ I’m a freelance celebrity photographer who regularly sells his work to publications such as the Tomoeda Tribune and several online blogs, as well as film media. I am emailing you to offer you the right of first refusal on a few photographs of one of your employees. I normally work with Page Six but thought in this case offering your tv station the privilege would be appropriate. Please find a sample image attached. _

_ Yours, _

_ Hikoki S. _ _   
_ _ Freelance Photographer, Journalist, Graphic Designer _

>attachment

_ [Image description: Two men stand on the pathway leading up to a white building. One man is considerably smaller than the other. The taller one has long hair. They are smiling at each other. They are holding hands.]  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is a little late! I just had surgery this past week so if this chapter is incoherent I'm blame the post-op fog.
> 
> Thanks to everyone who left comments and kudos last time <3


	15. Noya Gets a Phone Call

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: for a Asahi having a fit of anxiety  
> Thank your for all the encouraging comments last time :)

The restaurant Kuroo had suggested was a rotating sushi bar, located in the city’s small gay village. Asahi remembered walking through this neighborhood once with his mother and her commenting, “My, that restaurant over there seems to only have men eating at it.” He had coughed and urged them to walk faster.

“See, this neighborhood is a poorly kept secret,” Kuroo was in the middle of saying, swiping a plate of nigiri and depositing it neatly in front of Kenma. “And the beauty of a poorly kept secret—eat this—is that it _is_ still a secret to some people.”

“If you know, you know,” Noya agreed. He and Kuroo had been doing the lion’s share of the talking. Asahi and Kenma were both content to chip in occasionally. Kenma was quietly showing Asahi an app on his phone where he grew little plants.

“Right,” Kuroo said. “And when my dad asks why there are so many people in glitter around at night time, I say ‘don’t worry about it.’”

“You brought your _dad_ here?” Noya looked impressed. “At _night?_ Do you want this?” he added to Asahi, picking up a plate of spicy roll.

Asahi did want it. That part of him warred briefly with the part that didn’t want to seem greedy. “It’s okay,” he demurred finally. “You have it.”

“Nope. You first.” Noya put it down in front of him firmly. “I’ll get the next one.” Asahi felt himself warm, inside and out. Noya seemed to like taking care of him. 

“I mean, not really,” Kuroo said, continuing around these interactions. “We were just driving through, we stopped to get sodas at the 7/11.” 

“Your dad seems cool.” 

“Pretty cool. We got closer after my mom passed away.”

Noya, to his infinite credit, simply blinked once, eyes fixed firmly on the rotating belt. “Makes sense,” he said, matching the tone of voice Kuroo had used. “When did she pass?”

“When I was a kid.”

Noya’s hand snaked out and delicately plucked another plate of spicy roll from the conveyor belt. “So you and your dad have had a long time to get close.”

Kuroo smiled. “Exactly.” Then he frowned slightly. Reaching for Kenma’s cup, he filled it with hot water from the little tap at the end of their booth. “Azumane, you need a refill too?” he asked.

“Oh, yes please.” 

As Kuroo filled up Asahi’s cup, Noya was picking up his phone. “Alright, gotta get an artsy shot of this for the ‘gram.” His foot kicked companionably against Asahi’s as he spoke, and Asahi warmed again, remembering their conversation about footsies. Noya’s attention was on him.

“Your official ‘gram?” Kuroo asked, leaning over Noya’s shoulder, hand propping up his chin. His face broke into that trademark lazy smirk. “We’re so honored.”

“Can’t put your faces on the official account, sorry,” Noya said. “Trust me though, you don’t want that smoke. But, I _can_ put you on the friend-stagram.”

“The what?” Asahi asked.

“Friends-Instagram,” Kenma supplied.

“The Instagram where I am actually allowed to shitpost,” Noya supplied further. “Come on, selfie time.” And he leaned against Asahi’s side. He’d done his hair in a kind of coiff for date-night and it was stiff against Asahi’s cheek. Asahi turned his face towards it. He found the style adorable. Kuroo and Kenma leaned across the table to try to get into frame as well. Noya tutted. “Oh, can’t quite do it. Asa-san, can you hold the camera for me?” So with a twinge of reluctance, Asahi pulled his face out of Noya’s hair and held the camera for him. 

“There,” he said, taking several pictures, just to be safe. “One of those should be good.”

“Do I get to follow this mysterious friend-stagram?” Kuroo asked, reaching for his own phone.

“‘Course you can,” Noya said with playful magnanimity. “What’s your handle?”

Kuroo, Noya, and Asahi played rock-paper-scissors over who was going to foot the bill. Asahi knew that Kuroo and Kenma liked to pay for their friends but he was conscious of the fact that Noya had paid for their last date as well as for their not-date, and he couldn’t help but feel like it was his turn. In the end though, Kuroo won anyway and Asahi’s fretting was swept aside.

By the time they had gotten back to Noya’s apartment, Asahi was pleasantly full and content. He didn’t know how often Noya planned to invite him to spend the weekend at his house, but he was enjoying the way sleepovers allowed them to make the most of their scant time together. He had already caught himself daydreaming about maybe someday, if their relationship got serious enough, switching his own work schedule to the late shift, allowing them to leave the mornings for each other. It was just one thought in a long line of thoughts that swelled in him like a balloon, like he threatened to pop if he imagined such happiness for himself. Was this what falling in love felt like? He scarcely dared to think it, not already.

The door had barely opened to Noya’s apartment before Noya said, “I’ve got stuff to show you, come on.” 

“Thank you for having me,” he said, draining this wave of thought away once again and instead focusing on getting his shoes off in the genkan. Noya, who always just kicked off his shoes, stood before him, practically vibrating with his excitement. 

“Come on, come on,” he said, grabbing Asahi’s arm and dragging him towards the bathroom. “Look,” he insisted, pointing at the sink. “You’ve your own toothbrush now!”

He did. It sat on Noya’s counter, pristine and new and the color of bubblegum. “Pink?” he asked.

“Sure, you said you like pink right?” And Asahi felt a thrill of satisfaction at the thought of Noya remembering these little details. “So I asked Saeko-niisan what’s a good pink.” 

“A ‘good pink?’” Asahi threaded his fingers through Noya’s, just because he could.

“Yah! Like, orange is my favorite color but some oranges are better than others you know?” Noya swung their hands a little. 

“What’s the best orange?” 

“Highlighter orange. And then neon, probably. And then that shade they call vermillion, or whatever.” Noya used Asahi’s hold on his hand to stretch out towards the sink, balancing on one leg almost like a ballerina. Asahi let his own arm reach with him, accommodating the movement. Snatching up Asahi’s toothbrush, Noya yanked on Asahi’s arm and rebalanced himself. “So what do you think?”

His enthusiasm was adorable. Asahi plucked the toothbrush from his hand and pretended to examine it seriously. “A very good pink,” he pronounced after a moment, and because Noya was still looking up at him with such fixed attention, Asahi took the toothbrush and tapped it lightly against Noya’s head. “Thank you, sir.”

“Nothing but the best for my man,” Noya said, reaching up to take the toothbrush and return it to its rightful place. “Do you want something to drink? I bought some of that beer you like.” As he spoke he re-laced his fingers through Asahi’s hand and led him towards the kitchen. 

“Wow, this really is five-star service,” Asahi joked mildly. 

“I accept tips in the form of a smooch,” Noya informed him, opening the fridge. 

Asahi waited until he reemerged, holding a beer in each hand before telling him, “Hold still please.” And tucking his hands behind his back, he leaned down and pecked Noya chastely on the mouth.

Noya’s smile, as he looked up, took on a distinctly flirtatious quality. “I also accept tips in the form of sloppy makeouts,” he said. 

Asahi huffed through his nose before gathering his confidence and planting a hand on the fridge above Noya’s head. Bending down once again, he took Noya’s chin in his thumb and index finger and kissed him for real. 

He always got the impression, whenever they kissed, that whatever control he had was what Noya gave him. That Noya, who had so much more experience with this, was letting Asahi test the waters, set the pace, figure out what he liked. He had seen a video once of a tiger cub in a zoo, trying to sneak up on its parent. “Look at the ears,” the video description had said. “The mama knows her baby is there, and she’s letting him pounce.” Kissing Noya felt like that. It was a little embarrassing, to think that Noya was _allowing_ this but it also felt kind of sexy. It gave him a hot and cold kind of thrill, thinking that if Noya ever stopped holding back, he could devour Asahi whole.

When he finally straightened back up, Noya was wearing that self-satisfied look that always made Asahi’s heart a little fluttery, and his blood a little warm. “Yeah,” Noya breathed. “Just like that.” He slipped easily under the arm Asahi still had up against the fridge. “Come on, let’s take this to the couch.” 

Noya set the beers on the coffee table and threw himself down on the couch with a sigh. With a tolerant shake of his head, Asahi took it upon himself to put their beers on the much-neglected coasters. Noya’s coffee table was covered with the rings of condensation stains. This task accomplished, he settled himself down beside his boyfriend.

Noya was already turning in his direction. “Brace yourself, Asa-chan.” And pushing himself up off the cushions, Noya _crawled_ forward the necessary two feet and straight up on Asahi’s thighs. Asahi tried to remember how to breathe. As Noya wrapped his arms around Asahi’s neck, Asahi had a split second to admire the high cheekbones and wide, pretty eyes, and plump bottom lip before Noya was kissing him. Teeth gently scraped his lip and Asahi thought, in a breathless, flustered kind of way, that the tiger metaphor really was appropriate. 

At some point, Noya’s arms unspooled themselves from Asahi’s shoulders and found his way into his hair, fingertips holding his head in place. Asahi’s hands were on his waist, teasing their way under the hem of his shirt. His tongue licked the roof of Noya’s mouth and this close, he felt the full-body shiver that earned him in response. Noya’s hands fisted properly in his hair and pulled. 

Asahi let out the most embarrassing noise his vocal chords had ever made. It was it somewhere between a rumble and a moan and it had Noya instantly pulling back to look at him. 

“Yeah?” Noya asked, sharp-toothed as any predator.

“Nothing!” Asahi squeaked. “That was nothing. I don’t know what that was.”

“Uh-huh.” Noya pressed his forehead to Asahi’s temple. “You like having your hair pulled, big guy?” Asahi could feel Noya’s fingers, looping Asahi’s hair around themselves more thoroughly. 

“You could,” he breathed, distracted by the very wet press of Noya’s lips against his skin. “You could help me find out.”

He had discovered very early on into this relationship that he loved being able to _feel_ the press of Noya’s smile against him. “Sure,” Noya agreed easily and sat up on his knees against him, angling Asahi’s face upward, and kissed him again.

Having his hair pulled, as it turned out, made Asahi _squirm._ He pulled Noya tight as he could against him, desperate to get them as close as possible. Noya bit on his bottom lip and slid himself down Asahi’s body like a pole, resettling forcefully in his lap even as his grip on Asahi’s hair and Asahi’s grip on Noya kept them pressed flush. One of Noya’s hands untangled itself to grab at the back of Asahi’s head. With a jolt, Asahi realized that he was getting aroused. Physically.

Noya realized it at the same time he did. “Oh hey there,” he murmured against Asahi’s mouth. He sounded ridiculously pleased. Still he detached himself and sat back, resettling most of his weight around Asahi’s knees, in safer territory, even as his hands found their way to Asahi’s stomach. “Want me to do something about that for you?” His face as he looked up at Asahi was a strange mixture of lecherous and gentle that Asahi couldn’t picture anyone else pulling off. His flushed cheeks and red mouth contrasted beautifully with his dark eyelashes and dark eyes. He was gorgeous.

He was gorgeous and beloved and those two things together made it easy for Asahi to put a hand to either side of his neck and reel him back in. “Just kiss me, please,” Asahi told him. He could scarcely believe his own ease with the situation. “I don’t care about the rest.”

“Okay,” Noya agreed, coming back forward eagerly. “But don’t blame me if you come in your pants.”

The laugh that escaped him was so giddy it was almost a giggle. “Okay, but you can’t blame me either.”

“Oh, you are _not_ gonna hear me complaining, Asa-chan.” His hands began to slide down Asahi’s body, slipping themselves under his shirt and began their journey back up. They had found Asahi’s chest hair when Noya paused, making a small noise in the back of his throat, an acknowledgement of something. “Hey, my phone’s going off, can you grab it for me? Right ass cheek.”

“Noya!” Asahi laughed even as he pretended to be scandalized at the language. Their current position made him bold. He squeezed Noya’s ass with one hand, and with the other, reached into Noya’s pocket for him and drew out his vibrating phone. “It says ‘Overlords?’” he asked, looking at the screen. 

“Oh shit, that’s work,” Noya said, hastily plucking the phone from Asahi’s grip. “Shit, sorry, I have to take this. Why’re they calling _now?”_ he muttered to himself, rolling off Asahi’s lap and pressing the phone to his ear. “Yup!”

Asahi resettled himself, trying to calm his body down. He was listening in that vague way when you didn’t want to eavesdrop on a conversation but couldn’t help when the person having it was two feet away from you. He looked up again in time to see a slight frown forming on Noya’s face. “Yeah, I can do that,” Noya said. “What’s up?”

Pause.

“Okay, one sec.” Noya pulled the phone away from his ear and squinted at the screen. Asahi watched with an indefinable sense of unease as he navigated to something there. “Yeah, just got it,” Noya said, projecting his voice a little to be heard with the phone away from his face. His thumb tapped at something. Asahi watched the expression on his face turn stony. Noya’s eyes found Asahi for a moment and when they dropped back to his screen, Noya looked truly angry. Asahi felt the last of his arousal abruptly drain away. With a deep breath, Noya put his phone back to his ear. “Okay, yeah that’s _definitely_ something we gotta talk about.”

Pause.

“What’s gonna happen?” The pause was shorter this time. When he spoke again, it sounded like Noya was cutting the other person off. “No, I get that we’re _gonna_ talk about it. I heard you. But come on, at least give me a gut check or something!” Asahi watched a muscle begin to work in his jaw as he ground his teeth. “‘Kay, cool. See you then.” And he hung up. Tossing his phone to the other end of the couch, he turned to stand in front of Asahi, folding his arms over his chest.

“Are you okay?” Asahi asked.

“We need to talk.” Noya’s eyes were wild even as the rest of him was completely still.

It was like getting dunked in ice water. Asahi’s body broke out in goosebumps as Noya’s words forced the air from his lungs. “Noya?”

Noya stared at him for a moment before sighing and rubbing at his eyes with one hand. “Look. Okay. The studio got an email tonight. You know how on that first not-date we went on, we ran into that gossip reporter?”

“Yes?”

“Well, sometimes they take pictures of me and Ryuu. And Kiyoko too, I guess, but not as many people know her on sight, especially if she’s not with one of us. Anyway...look I’m just gonna show you. Can you pass me my phone?” Noya looked a little sheepish as Asahi reached to the end of the couch and handed him his phone back. He opened something on it and handed it to Asahi.

The moment was uncanny. Asahi had an odd feeling that he knew what he was about to see, even before he looked at the screen. Sure enough, there was a picture of him and Noya, outside the gallery, Noya’s hand in his. The smile on his own face was one of quiet adoration. Asahi’s heart began to hammer. “What does this mean?” he asked, looking back up at Noya. His voice was weak.

“The photographer is offering the studio the right of first refusal on these pictures. I don’t know how many he’s got exactly, but basically what it means is that if we don’t buy the photos off him, he’s going to sell them to Page Six or another local publication. Or, he might be able to find an online buyer. _Tanaka & Noya _ has a pretty large online fanbase. I dunno.” Noya scowled at the floor and crossed his arms again. “This has never happened before. Not like this.”

Breathing was getting harder by the minute. “The paparazzi is selling photos of us?” _Of me? Why me? I’m no one. I’m just a physiotherapist._

“Welcome to my world.” Noya’s scowl faded a little and he glanced up at Asahi. “I’m sorry, Asahi-san,” he added, looking him in the eye.

Asahi looked down at the photo again. The screen had gone dim and he tapped it with his thumb to light it up again. Some distant part of him, barely audible over the pounding in his ears, noted that it really was a nice photo. Under other circumstances, he might have wanted it for his phone background. When he swallowed, his throat felt thick. “What...What do you think is going to happen?” he croaked. 

“I dunno,” Noya admitted. His posture was the most subdued Asahi had ever seen it. “The studio execs might want to have a press conference or something—”

“A press conference?” Asahi’s shoulders shot up to his ears. The hand that wasn’t holding Noya’s phone came to wrap around his own midsection. “They’re going to make you come out?” _Are they going to make_ me _come out?_

“I don’t _know_ , Asahi-san,” Noya insisted. Asahi watched his eyebrows pinch, looking angry. It scared him. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re having an emergency meeting tomorrow morning to talk about it.”

“So, that’s it?” Asahi asked, unable to help himself. Was he having an anxiety attack? It was suddenly very cold in here. “If your producers want you to come out, you have to come out? And me too?”

 _“Hey.”_ Noya’s smoky voice had a warning note in it. “I _said_ we’re gonna talk about it. But that doesn’t mean I just roll over and do whatever anyone tells me. You can make your own choice.”

 _Noya’s scared too,_ Asahi realized. Of course he had a right to be scared. This was his job. Asahi was in the crossfire but this was threatening Noya directly. His anxiety was selfish in the face of that. He should be the one to comfort Noya right now, he shouldn’t be trying to get Noya to assure him. _Calm down,_ he tried to tell himself. _You have to calm down._ “I don’t—I didn’t mean—”

Noya sighed. “I know you didn’t.” The frown didn’t leave his face though. His arms were still crossed, and he was chewing the inside of his cheek. “Tell me what you need,” he demanded.

“I—” Ten minutes. If he could just have ten minutes to calm himself down, he could pull Noya into his arms and tell him that they could face this. That Asahi was terrified but he would try. _Five minutes,_ he thought, his eyes starting to prick. _If I could just get five minutes even._ “I,” he tried again. “Can I just have a little space?” His voice sounded thick. 

His paper heart crumpled at the way Noya’s expression shuttered. It looked so _wrong_ on that bright, expressive face. “Sure.” Noya’s chin tipped back, distant and proud. “You want me to call you a cab?” 

“What?” _Is he kicking me out?_ The words weren’t coming out right. Why did they never come out _right_ when he needed them? “No, you don’t have to do that. I can…” _I can calm myself on my own,_ he meant to say. Or maybe, _I can just wait this out in the bathroom, just give me two minutes, just two minutes._ Too late, he realized how him trailing away right there must have sounded.

“Asa-chan,” Noya said, already tugging his phone back out of Asahi’s hand. His face still had that horrible closed expression. His pinkie finger, as he reached out, was trembling. “Let me do this for you.” 

_But I don’t want to go,_ Asahi wanted to insist. _I can be brave for you._

_But maybe,_ the meaner part of his brain suggested, _maybe this is for the best._ After all, Noya shouldn’t have to comfort him on top of dealing with his own emotions. Maybe Asahi _should_ just go. The pricking in his eyes turned to outright stinging, the rollercoaster of the past fifteen minutes too much for him. He pressed his face into his hands and focused on his breaths. 

There was dead silence in the apartment. Asahi became aware that Noya, standing in front of him, wasn't moving. Was he just standing there, watching? The thought made him feel worse. Why wasn’t Noya _saying_ anything? 

He didn’t know how much time had passed before Noya spoke. “I’m just going to the kitchen, okay Asahi-san? I’m gonna be right back.” Asahi nodded into his hands. The anxiety was still making him feel cold.

There were pictures of him and Noya out there. Pictures someone was trying to sell. Pictures that might get published without his permission or consent. What would his parents think? His boss? His relatives? Oh God, what if this was just like when Oikawa Tooru came out, with the news people saying mean things about them for days on end?

One of his hands found the back of his neck. He focused on the roll of the barbell under his fingers. First the left side. Then the right.

 _I can feel my piercing,_ he catalogued. _I can feel the stubble on my chin. I can smell the soap on my hands. I can hear Noya in the kitchen. I can hear the sound of running water._ Forcing himself to open his eyes, he peeked through the cracks in his fingers. _I can see Noya’s coffee table. I can see my feet. My mom gave me those socks for my birthday._

True to his promise, Noya came back into the room. “Here’s some water, Asahi-san,” he said. His hands appeared in Asahi’s field of vision as he set the water on the coffee table. Those hands hesitated, then they drew a coaster from its container and set it under the water glass. The uncharacteristic attention to detail made Asahi smile. A weak smile, but it was there.

“Thank you,” he told Noya’s hands. Slowly he reached out and took a sip of his water. It was ice-cold and the sensation was grounding. He took a breath and found the air came to him easier. 

“Uh.” Noya sounded uncertain. “The cab is gonna be here in like five minutes. Do you wanna go down and wait for it?”

 _It would be better for everyone if you left,_ that mean voice reminded him. _This is scary for Noya too,_ another part told him. He forced himself to his feet. “Noya,” he said, and was gratified to find his voice sounded somewhat steady. “Can I hug you?”

Noya’s eyes went wide. He closed the distance between them, literally stepping onto the coffee table, sock feet navigating all the drinks on it with catlike grace. Leaning forward, he buried his face in Asahi’s neck. Asahi wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s strong shoulders and held on for dear life. He could feel the give of Noya’s chest, pushing against him with each breath, he could feel that breath coming out in hot puffs against his skin. He pressed his face into Noya’s hair, breathed in his cologne and shampoo. 

“Are you dumping me?” Noya asked against his throat. Asahi wanted to cry. 

Instead, he squeezed tighter, and imagined he could feel Noya’s ribs creak. “No,” he whispered, pressing his lips to the top of Noya’s head. “No, I promise.” _I think you're the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m sorry I get scared. I hate that I get scared. You shouldn’t have to deal with it._

“Okay,” Noya mumbled. His blunt nails were digging in through Asahi’s shirt. When he spoke, his mouth tickled the skin of Asahi’s neck. “That’s good.” 

Reluctantly, Asahi released him and stepped back. Noya on the coffee table was almost eye-to-eye with him. Asahi felt overwhelmed with all the things he wanted to say. An apology for the way he was, a plea for Noya not to make him leave. “I should get my shoes,” he mumbled.

Noya stepped backwards off the table with infinite grace. “I’ll grab your stuff,” he said. And as he moved around the apartment, some of his old determination was back in his gait. 

Asahi felt strangely bereft as he made his way to the genkan and slipped his shoes back on. Or maybe lonesome was the right word. Noya approached him with his things and Asahi watched him with big eyes, feeling quiet and numb.

“Will you call me, Asahi-san?” Noya asked. “Or can I call you tomorrow when I know what’s gonna happen?”

Asahi nodded. “Please call. Do, um.” He stopped himself. It would have been selfish to complete the sentence.

“Do what?”

“Nothing.”

“Asahi-san, I swear to God,” Noya growled. “Spit it out.”

Asahi’s eyes fell to the floor. “I could text you when I get home,” he said. “If you want me to.”

When he gathered the courage to look back at Noya’s face, he found that Noya’s eyes had gone dark and fierce. “You’d better,” he said firmly. “I wanna know you made it back safe, you hear me?”

He nodded. “I’ll text you.” It was barely more than a whisper. 

Noya nodded too. “Okay. Don’t forget.”

The cab ride home was blessedly silent, the driver making no attempt at conversation. It was a warm night but Asahi was wishing he’d bought a jacket, the anxiety was still making him shivery. He barely managed more than a mumbled, “Thank you,” as the cab pulled up by his apartment building. He was alone in the elevator as he rode it up to his floor. It felt too empty, too rattly. Remembering his promise, he took out his phone and texted Noya.

From: Asahi  
 _I got home! I’m in the elevator._

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _k thnx_ _  
__glad your safe_

Asahi’s heart sank a little. It wasn’t the effusive quadruple-texting he’d come to expect. He deserved the cold shoulder a little tonight, probably. He tucked his phone into his pocket again and exited out onto his apartment floor. 

Suga and Daichi were at the kitchen table when he got in. They both looked up as Asahi entered. He was supposed to have been spending the night at Noya’s but neither of them looked particularly surprised to see him. “Asahi,” Suga said. “Come here, please.” 

_Oh no._ Whatever this was, Asahi couldn’t handle another awkward conversation tonight. Still, it was Suga. He went.

“Noya texted me a while ago,” Suga told him, tone perfectly calm. “He thought you were having an anxiety attack. He asked me what to do.” His long-familiar brown eyes looked up at Asahi, uncanny and perceptive as they had always been. “Are you okay?”

“I’m better,” Asahi allowed. His voice sounded like he felt, old and lukewarm as dishwater. “I really just want to get some sleep.” 

“Can you at least say what happened?” Daichi asked.

“At least a little bit,” Suga added.

He didn’t want to. The anxiety had been so bad. But he hated feeling like he couldn’t face his—Noya’s—problems. “His work found out about us.” He looked between the two of them. Suga’s face was still carefully calm. Daichi’s brow had furrowed. “And they need to have a meeting about it tomorrow morning.”

“Is Noya in trouble?” Daichi’s eyebrows drew down over his eyes.

Asahi shook his head. “I don’t know. Noya didn’t know anything either.” He sighed and rubbed at his neck again. “I’m sorry but I think I just want to go to bed.”

“That’s okay. Here,” Suga said. “Here, we made you some tea.” Sure enough three mugs sat on the table in front of him. He picked one up and handed it to Asahi. “But we will have to talk about it later, okay?”

“Yeah,” Asahi agreed, because he knew they would. “He said he’s going to call me once he knows something tomorrow.” 

“Good.” Suga smiled at him then. “Good night Asahi.”

“Good night.” And he finally, _finally,_ retreated to his room, shutting the door carefully behind him. 

Letting his backpack fall to the ground, he carefully set his tea down on his dresser. Crouching on his floor, he dug into his bag for his pajamas, tossing his day clothes hastily in the hamper. With this taken care of, he got into bed. He knew the next step in his self-soothing ritual, but there was still something else to be done first.

From: Asahi  
 _Good luck tomorrow, Noya._ _  
__< 3_

And he was just the tiniest bit gratified when the reply came almost instantly.

From: Noya (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)  
 _< 3 <3 <3_

He pulled the covers up over himself and got to work.

Asahi kept a picture tucked into the top drawer of his nightstand. It was a picture of him when he was ten, band-aids on each knee, tenderly holding up a large toad that he’d caught. His hair then had been a bowl cut, cute only in the sense that anything looked cute on a child. His smile had been wide and unimpeded. If he cried often back then, he’d also smiled a lot. 

He’d started keeping this photo close by as a result of something his therapist had said; _“If the child you’d been at the age of ten was in this room with you, would you ever tell him any of the mean things you say to yourself? Would you ever tell him he’s too weak? Or that he doesn’t deserve to have good people love him?”_

Asahi set the picture on the mattress beside his pillow. He imagined that ten year-old-boy climbing into bed with him, in need of comfort after having cried himself out. He would never tell that little ten-year-old that men don’t get scared, that they don’t cry. He’d seen most of the best men in his life cry, Daichi and Suga, and his father at his grandma’s funeral, and even a drunken Kuroo Tetsurou once. When a tear or two slipped down his cheek now, he imagined telling his ten-year-old self, _Shh sweetheart. It’s okay._

Asahi had a secret. It wasn’t necessarily one he tried to hide but it was also one that would just probably never come up. It was both gleaming and hidden, like gold in a riverbed, something precious that no one else had discovered yet. It was a stubborn little thing, a fierce one, a secret that had survived dark nights and waves of self-doubt. In that way, it kind of reminded him of Noya. Every time he reached for it and found it still there, it made him almost weak with relief. He reached for it now, grabbed tight. In the valley of this bad night with his boyfriend, he held the child he’d been closer to his chest.

_Sweetheart, it’s okay._

His secret was this; even when he was hurting, even when he was exhausted and scared, and disappointed in himself, there was a part of Azumane Asahi that loved Azumane Asahi unconditionally.


	16. The Board Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the comments from last time really warmed my heart :' ) I'm glad the last chapter meant so much.  
> CW: This chapter is the most this story has discussed homophobia so far, with a little implication of misogyny.

“You look like shit,” was the first thing Ryuu said to him when he arrived at the studio.

“Thanks, I slept like shit.” Noya plopped down in his own chair. He and Ryuu shared an office. They probably could have each had their own, being headliners and all, but they used their desks so rarely that they had never felt the need to pester anyone for an upgrade. Kicking at the floor, he wheeled himself over so he and Ryuu were side-by-side, the back of his chair knocking up against Ryuu’s desk. There were two to-go cups of coffee sitting there.

“This is yours,” Ryuu said, pushing one towards him. “If you need more of a pick-me-up, I got an energy drink you can mix in.”

“Ha.” Noya reached for the cup with greedy hands. “What about liqueur? I could use some alcohol right now.” 

“Afterwards, plum-blossom,” Ryuu assured him. “We should probably try to _not_ go into a staff meeting schwasted.” 

“Not before New Year’s anyway,” Noya said, with some kind of attempt at humor. Ryuu offered him a smile for his efforts.

Then he stilled. “Hey, so. Asahi-san was with you when you found out?”

“Yeah.”

“How’d he take it?”

Noya felt himself go way too still in his chair. “Not good.” A kind of silence fell at his words. 

Not for the first time, he cursed machismo and society and self-image and all the other things that stopped him from burrowing himself into Ryuu’s side and letting the familiar smell of his best friend comfort him. It was the scent that came with being a Tanaka, the scent that would be mixed with the same cologne Ryuu had been wearing since they were twenty years old. The two of them had known each other since _high school_ for God’s sake. They’d seen each other naked and slept in the same bed. It was so stupid that he knew that Ryuu would do anything for him and yet Noya couldn’t ask his best friend to comfort him like that. 

He remembered the feeling of last night, the way Asahi had crushed Noya against his body like he never wanted to let go. Noya wanted Asahi back.

“Well,” Ryuu began slowly, drawing him out of his own head. “I do have some good news.”

“Hit me with that good news.” Noya took a sip of the coffee and then made a face. It was black. Both he and Ryuu only drank black coffee in life-threatening emergencies. Which, you know. Fitting.

“Guess who the studio execs are sending for the meeting.” Ryuu swiveled his chair a little, his knees knocking against Noya’s seat. 

Noya frowned. “Who?” Then his eyes widened. “Is it Take-chan?”

Ryuu grinned. “It’s Take-chan.”

“Take-chan!”

At 39, Takeda Ittetsu was the youngest executive producer at the studio. He was also Noya and Ryuu’s favorite. He had an unassuming demeanor, was sharp as a knife, and had a varied and eclectic education. He was also the most adorable fully-grown man that Noya had ever met. If anyone could make him feel better about this shitshow, it would be Takeda. “What do you think he’s gonna tell us?” Noya asked.

“I dunno,” Ryuu said. “I did hear rumblings about you having to do a press conference.”

Noya’s stomach turned uncomfortably at the thought. He remembered Asahi sitting on his couch, his face buried in his hands. “I was thinking about that too.” He wondered if he had any power to stop that from happening, for his boyfriend’s sake as much as his own. As bad as it would be for him, it would be a hundred times worse for Asahi. But if Takeda was the one representing the execs at the meeting, that meant Noya could get his concerns to be listened to, at least. Maybe Noya could talk him out of it.

“You nervous?” Ryuu asked.

Noya shrugged. “I’m more worried about Asahi-san,” he admitted quietly. 

The look Ryuu shot him was somewhere between shrewd and compassionate. It was a very Tanaka look. “You guys still okay?”

“Honestly? I don’t know.” Asahi had _said_ he wasn’t dumping him but he had still been really upset. It made Noya’s gut churn uncomfortably. When he was in high school he would have called Asahi a coward for last night. Adult Noya knew better. In the same way Kiyoko wasn’t weak for the meds she had to take every morning, Asahi’s anxiety wasn’t cowardice. Anxiety was an uphill fight, but it wasn’t cowardice.

“You wanna talk about it?” Ryuu asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

Noya shook his head. “Nah.”

There really was compassion in Ryuu’s eyes now. “That bad huh?” Being as open as he was, Noya _not_ wanting to talk about something was a very bad sign. They both knew it. 

“About that bad, yup.” Noya rocked back and forth in his chair, head tilted back towards the ceiling. “If they do make us do a press conference, I just wanna get up there and be like, ‘Yeah I’m dating a guy! So what! You all better fucking leave him alone!’”

“You know what you _should_ do,” Ryuu said. His tone held the beginnings of a joke. “You should be like, super polite and proper the whole time but you should be wearing a shirt with like, a middle finger on it.”

Noya perked. “Holy shit, you’re so right.” He pictured it. “Oh wait wait wait, I know what I want. I’ll be super good the whole time and then my shirt’ll be in English and it’ll say, ‘When he fucks me good I take his ass to Red Lobster.’”

Ryuu laughed. “Ha! Can I wear one with you in solidarity?” he asked. “Mine can say, ‘When _she_ fucks me good I take her ass to Red Lobster.’”

“That would be amazing,” Noya agreed. “And the comments section on your socials can have a meltdown trying to figure out what ‘when she fucks me’ means.”

“Listen,” Ryuu said, with all the air of a venerable sage. “It’s _so_ important to educate the public about the male g-spot.”

“What would we have to do to get PR to let you post a picture of Kiyoko’s strap-on?” 

Ryuu gave him his trademark shark-like grin. “Which one?”

There was a knock of the doorframe. Noya and Ryuu turned their heads to see one of the assistant directors, Hiragi, standing there. “Tanaka-san? Noya-san? They’re getting ready to start the meeting.”

“Okay.” Ryuu got to his feet. “I’ll go get the missus.” He clapped a hand to Noya’s shoulder and left it there. “See you inside?”

“See you there.”

“How are you this morning, Noya-san?” Hiragi asked as they walked towards the conference room. They were about the same height but Hiragi was in heels today. 

“Eh. You know what it is,” Noya said, with all his devil-may-care.

“I really don’t,” Hiragi said. She had a sharpness about here that Noya had always appreciated and feared in equal measure. “I can’t say I’ve ever had a reporter take pictures of me and the person I was dating and send them to my boss.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

“You know,” she commented. “I saw the photos. At least you picked someone hot.”

‘Picked’ was a weird way to put it, in Noya’s opinion. Not like he had put Asahi in a line-up with a bunch of other guys and pointed him out. But before he could try to voice this, she continued, “I hope the sex is good at least.”

Noya felt himself bristle. “Don’t see how that’s any of your business, Hiragi-san.” 

She paused for a moment. They looked at each other.

If Asahi had been the kind of person who was as horny as Noya himself, Noya might have laughed at the comment. He might have found some kind of dark humor in it, might have even shared the joke he had with Ryuu, about taking Asahi’s ass to Red Lobster. As it was, Asahi was sweet and shy and every time they pulled away after kissing, Asahi watched him like he wanted to know he’d done a good job. Hiragi didn’t know Noya or Asahi like Ryuu did. The cat was out of the bag on them but Noya was gonna be _damned_ if that meant every last schmuck he worked with got to comment on it. He stared Hiragi down.

“Of course, Noya-san,” she demurred finally. “As you say, it’s not my business.” Reaching out, she took the handle of the glass door to the conference room and let them in. 

Takeda was already waiting inside, his assistant seated next to him. Noya felt a wash of relief. “Take-chan! Hey!” he sang out, snagging a seat for himself.

“Noya-kun, it’s good to see you.” Takeda looked exactly as placid and cheerful as he always did. Noya had seen him express a variety of emotions, had seen him surprised and confused and even drunk, but in all the years he’d worked here, he’d never seen Takeda well and truly upset. 

The thought was comforting enough that he flashed a cheeky smile. “Do I even _wanna_ ask you how it’s going?” 

Takeda laughed. “Well, along with the obvious storm on the horizon, I have been informed that the manga artist you two wanted to interview is actually in the reception lobby right now.”

“What?” Noya sat up straighter. “Why would he be here? These aren’t even regular studio hours!” The emergency meeting had them all starting their usual shift at 11:00 a.m. rather than 4:00 in the afternoon. 

“It seems to be the result of a rather fantastic clerical error,” Takeda said. His hands were folded neatly on the table in front of him. “I’ve sent him with some refreshments and our apologies that we will have to keep him waiting just a bit longer. But it seems that we are all, as they say in some countries, ‘having an extremely normal one.”

Noya laughed. “‘A normal one?’”

“Isn’t it a delightful turn of phrase?” Takeda beamed at him. “Apparently you usually only have ‘a normal one’ in the online environment but I think we are rapidly approaching one here.”

“Please explain internet slang to me more,” Noya said. “It could be our next new show.”

The door to the conference room opened, admitting Ryuu and Kiyoko. “Take-chan,” Ryuu called. “Your favorite power couple is here!”

“Tanaka-kun! Shimizu-chan!” Takeda turned that wide smile on them. “Welcome, welcome.”

There was a little bit of shuffling as everyone got seated, hot beverages in hand. Once they were all settled in and looking to Takeda, he cleared his throat politely. “I’m sure you’re all aware of why we’re here.” Noya resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. “But I would like to start by getting some cleared up. Noya-kun,” and Takeda’s gaze turned to him directly. “How long have you been dating this gentleman?”

The word was fitting, Noya thought. _Gentleman._ _Gentle man._ If it had been almost anyone else Noya would have gotten defensive at the question, but as it was, he just did some quick math in his head. “A month and a half?” he said. “Two months at the most.”

“I think we should get out ahead of this thing,” Yano, their lead director, said. “We buy the photos and release them ourselves. We have control of the story if we’re the ones to break the story.”

“So a press conference?” someone else asked. It was someone from PR, Noya thought. His stomach sank. “Or do we publish the photos another way?”

“We have a wide online distribution,” Hiragi put in thoughtfully. “If we wanted, we could do our own photoshoot and post it to Noya’s social media.”

“No,” Noya said immediately. “No way.” Everyone turned to look at him. He was resolute. “I don’t want him in the studio.” He was gonna save Asahi from that if there was any chance he could.

“What do you propose we do then?” PR asked him. 

“If we have to make a big announcement, why can’t it just be about me? Why do we have to drag him into it?” Noya’s leg was bouncing under the table. He looked to Takeda for support. Takeda was watching the proceedings thoughtfully, the curl of his index finger propped against his bottom lip. 

“He’s already dragged into it,” Yano pointed out. “A reporter has his pictures on their camera roll.”

“Calling Hikoki a ‘reporter’ is generous, huh?” Ryuu chipped in. Everyone looked at him for a moment. Then continued like he hadn’t spoken. 

“Can we be sure he hasn’t sent those photos to anyone else?” Yano looked at one of the other people at the table. Media Management, or something. 

“It’s been less than 24-hours, so maybe. The longer we wait the more we run that risk though.”

“And we’re sure we have to buy the photos?” Hiragi asked. 

“Well an ounce of prevention, right?” PR said. “And Oda’s right.” ( _That_ was Media Management’s name, Oda.) “This window is the best chance we’re gonna get that he hasn’t shown anyone else yet.”

There was a pause as various people around the table made some notes. Takeda’s assistant had a notebook with her and was writing furiously, Noya noticed. Meeting minutes, possibly?

“So the next question is,” Oda continued, warming to the topic. “Which media outlets do we invite to a press conference?”

“Someone is certainly going to ask if the studio has asked for Noya’s resignation,” PR agreed.

“You know the day you fire Noya is the day I quit, right?” Ryuu growled. Noya felt a strangled wash of affection sweep over him. 

“Ryuu,” he started.

“I’m just saying.” Ryuu stared down the rest of the table. “You know we’re a packaged deal.”

“Tanaka-kun,” Yano tried.

“...Actually,” Takeda said. “If I may.” Everyone paused. Noya _had_ to learn that trick of getting everyone to listen while keeping his voice so mild. Pushing back his chair, Takeda stood up, tucking his hands behind his back. “I have a question: if two people begin a relationship, is that news?”

The silence turned a little confused. “Well it depends on who they are,” Oda said. “Obviously.”

“As you say, Oda-san,” Takeda agreed. “And when Tanaka-kun and Shimizu-chan started dating, we had a Page Six report published about them. At no point during that particular process did anyone attempt to sell us their photos before the publication.” He paused and surveyed them. While his mild expression didn’t waver, his smile had dropped. “We all agree this is essentially a blackmail attempt, do we not?”

There were tentative nods from around the table. Noya’s fight-or-flight was definitely up. He tried to calm himself.

“So allow me to rephrase my question,” Takeda continued. “If two men begin a relationship, is that shameful?”

Dead, uncomfortable silence.

“And if it isn’t shameful, is it news?” Takeda turned to Noya. “Noya-kun. What does your boyfriend do?”

“He’s a physiotherapist.” Noya tried to rein in the part of himself that wanted to glare at the rest of the table. He didn’t entirely succeed.

“So he’s a private individual, yes? In the professional sense of the word?” At Noya’s nod, Takeda turned back to the others. “As a television station we are conversation starters. We have a degree of control over what conversation our audience is going to have that week. Do we believe that two men dating is conversation-worthy?” 

“...Many people would say that it is, Takeda-san,” Hiragi said. “Many of those people are in our viewership. That’s just the society we live in.”

Noya’s leg was bouncing. Distantly, he wondered if it was too late to start that pro volleyball career. Or become a stripper. Or leave the country and take Asahi with him. 

“Point, Hiragi-san,” Takeda said. “Then maybe I should rephrase my question. _Should_ two men dating be seen as conversation-worthy?” He smiled at them. “If we were to hold a press conference about it, that is certainly the idea we would be encouraging. And beyond what we would be encouraging, we would quite literally be forcing Noya-kun to come out publicly. If I consider myself an ally of the queer community, then I cannot in good conscience say that that is behavior I want to participate in.” 

Noya watched the faces around the table as they took in Takeda’s words. He allowed himself to hope. 

“Takeda-san,” Yano said. “I respect your idealism, I think we all do. But that doesn’t change the other things we’ve been saying. We have far less control of the story if we’re not the ones to break it to the public. As much as I want to be an ally too, if we let someone else leak the news of Noya’s relationship, we’d be throwing him to the wolves.”

Takeda looked thoughtful. “Yes, I’ve been struggling with that one too,” he admitted.

“Takeda-san,” PR said. “Do you or the other executives have any objection to buying the photos?”

Takeda brightened. “Not at all. I actually think we have a little bit of leeway here. I have spoken with the other studio executives and we have agreed on what I hope you’ll allow me to call ‘the carrot and the stick’ method. We buy the photos as a show of good faith, but we will also make it abundantly clear that if this becomes a trend, from him or from anyone else in the industry, we are more than within our rights to sue him, on at least three separate grounds that I can think of.”

 _Man,_ Noya thought. _I’m glad Take-chan’s on my side. _He cleared his throat and spoke up. “What, uh, what are the grounds?”

“Harassment, right?” Hiragi said. “That was the first thing I came up with.” Takeda hummed in agreement.

“Probably could do stalking as well,” Oda said. “You could maybe even get a restraining order.”

“What about ‘defamation of character?’” Yano put in.

“Well.” Hiragi arched an eyebrow. “Is it defamation if it’s true?” Noya and Ryuu bristled in equal measure. Kiyoko ran a soothing hand up Ryuu’s arm.

“You might be able to make a case for defamation if you were to argue that the way this report framed the implications of Noya’s sexuality was derogatory,” Takeda said. “But actually the last ground I was thinking of was extortion. Or perhaps emotional damages. Regardless,” and here he gave Noya a placid smile. “The other executives and I believe that that is the best course of action for dealing with the photos.”

“So we contact him and tell him that we’ll deal,” PR said. 

“Yes, one of the things I’d like us to do in this meeting is draft that email, as well as discuss pricing,” Takeda said. 

“Is that an item we include in the budget?” Ryuu broke in. “Blackmail fees?”

Takeda laughed. “I imagine we’ll write it off as a business expense.”

Noya snorted. “Corporate’s gonna love that,” he muttered, mostly to Ryuu. 

“Fuck corporate,” Ryuu muttered back, entirely to Noya.

Takeda _tsk-_ ed then, glancing down at his watch. “I know this meeting has only just begun but do you all mind just taking a brief recess? We have a guest waiting in the lobby and I’d like Noya-kun, Tanaka-kun, and Shimizu-chan to go out and greet him before this goes too much longer.”

“The manga artist, right?” Noya asked. He and Ryuu stood, almost in sync. 

“Yes,” Takeda agreed. “Alternatively, if the rest of you are okay to keep going, we can have a draft of our response email ready for when they return.” There were murmurs of agreement from around the table as Ryuu held the door open to let Kiyoko and Noya out of the conference room.

“You think he’s trying to get rid of us?” Noya asked, hands in his pockets, nerves making him uncharacteristically petulant. 

“Nah, Take-chan’s not like that,” Ryuu said. 

“We really shouldn’t keep a guest waiting,” Kiyoko agreed. 

Takagi Wataru was from Tomoeda to begin with. _Tanaka & Noya _ had had plenty of guests from out of town, but interviewing a local celebrity was always exciting. His shounen adventure manga had been a runaway success. Noya even owned a few volumes himself. Takagi was sitting where Takeda had presumably left him, seated in one of the lobby’s stylish armchairs, a small plate of cookies in front of him, a to-go cup in his hand. He looked up with a smile as the three of them approached.

“Takagi-san, hey,” Ryuu said, holding out a hand. “I’m Tanaka Ryuunosuke. This is my wife Shimizu Kiyoko, and my co-host, Nishinoya Yuu.”

Noya held out his own hand when his turn came, grateful for Ryuu for taking the lead today. “How’s it going?” he said. “You can just call me Noya, everyone does.”

The three of them had developed a feel for meeting guests over the years they’d been at this job. Noya could hold an easy, smooth introductory conversation with someone and in his head be imagining the interview with them. What questions would be funny to ask? Were they the kind of person who would need to be helped through nerves or public speaking? When they’d interviewed Sawamura Daichi, Noya and Ryuu had known to play into their rowdy-boy personalities a little harder, letting Daichi be funny by being the straight man. Some guests were already comfortable in front of the camera and needed very little prompting to give a good interview. Some needed the questions to keep coming.

“Have you ever done a tv interview before?” As Ryuu spoke, he deftly snatched up a cookie from the tray in front of Takagi. Breaking it in two, he handed half to Noya and popped the other half in his mouth. Snatching up another, he gave it to Kiyoko.

Takagi shook his head. “No, only for print.” 

“You’ll like it,” Noya assured him, figuring he couldn’t sulk behind Ryuu forever. “We’re a lot of fun.”

“Yes, I’ve seen some of your show.” Takagi smiled as he spoke. “I liked the hot tub episode.”

“ _God_ ,” Noya said, laughing at the memory. “I’m glad _someone_ did.”

“Never again,” Ryuu agreed. “It was like being boiled by a stove that just won’t fucking commit.” 

Takagi laughed politely, his eyes bouncing between the two of them. “Well, I hope there won’t be a jacuzzi during my interview,” he quipped.

“No promises,” Noya told him.

Kiyoko stepped in, getting them back on track. “Takagi-san, our hair and makeup team will prep you to appear on-camera, but most of our guests choose their own wardrobe. That way they can wear whatever they’re most comfortable in. We do recommend that you avoid wearing white and that if you have any questions about what to wear you can always reach out to us.”

Takagi blew out a steady stream of air. “Well, that’s a lot to take in,” he said. “But fortunately that’s what my publicist is for.” He offered them a rueful smile. “Although, to be honest, sometimes I can’t believe I have another grown-up who helps me dress myself.”

“What a life, right?” Ryuu agreed. “I hate having guidelines for what I can post on social media but I _love_ it when wardrobe hands me something to wear and it’s worth more than my actual car.”

“Someone’s power-tripping,” Noya said, elbowing him. They jostled each other a bit and Noya let the familiar camaraderie soothe him. 

Takagi at first impression seemed to be the more straight-laced type, Noya decided. Friendly though. That was good, that meant he would play well off of Ryuu and Noya’s antics. 

“We’ll send you the question list ahead of time,” Kiyoko assured him, ignoring her boys as she often did. “And you can let us know what you like to drink so we can have it ready when you arrive on-set.”

“Wow!” Takagi’s eyes were a little wide. “I’ll have to think about it; what do I want to be seen drinking on television?”

“If you’re worried about how it’s gonna look, we could put a little umbrella in it,” Ryuu offered. “Those look great on camera.”

“He’s not even lying,” Noya agreed. “We could all have one. It could be our thing.”

“Excuse me, Tanakoya-san? Shimizu-san?” The three of them turned. One of their media interns was standing there. It was almost always possible to pick out one of the interns because they tended to wear good running shoes. They were on their feet more than anyone else in the office. “I was sent to give you these.” Reshuffling the stack of papers in her arms, she gave each of them a handout in turn.

“‘Tanakoya?’” Takagi asked.

“Us,” Noya and Ryuu said in unison. The “-san” getting tacked on at the end was a nice touch. Noya’d have to remember that one.

“Thank you,” Kiyoko said, gracing the intern with a smile. “Are these for the meeting?” 

“Yes, you should see all the relevant information for when you return.” The intern had a slight flush over her cheeks. A lot of people did when talking to Kiyoko. “Oh!” she said, turning to Takagi. “Takagi-san? I was also sent to give you this.” And she took another sheaf of papers from her hand. 

Noya had been looking at the handout over Ryuu’s shoulder, just because he could. It opened with a poll, concerning the Japanese public’s opinions on gay marriage. The poll was several questions long. There were corresponding graphs. He looked away from Ryuu’s paper and checked his own.

He frowned.

“Excuse me, miss?” He called after the intern. “Did you mean to give me a questions list?” Even as he spoke, he realized, he must be holding the handout meant for—

“Sorry, what is this?” Takagi asked, frowning down at his page. 

“Oh whoops.” Noya ignored the swoop of stress in his stomach. “We got each other’s handouts. Here, swapsies.” And he held out Takagi’s question list for him. 

“Was this research for a future episode?” Takagi asked, trading papers with Noya hesitantly. 

“More or less,” Kiyoko told him demurely. Then, as if sensing Noya’s distress, she added, “Noya would you like to go check and see if they’re ready for us back in the boardroom?”

“Yeah,” Noya said, forcing his voice smooth. “On it.” He tried not to look like he was beating a retreat as he turned and walked away.

Everyone looked up as he re-entered the meeting. Only Takeda smiled at him. “Are Tanaka-kun and Shimuzu-chan still with our guest?” he asked. 

“Yeah.” Noya glanced around, trying to ignore the hostile feeling still brewing in his gut. “Kiyoko wants to know if you’re ready for us again.”

“Why don’t you sit down?” Takeda said. “We can send a runner out for them in a bit. It might be useful for them to have more of a chance to speak with him, since he came all this way.”

 _And,_ Noya thought ruefully as he took a seat. _This meeting is about me alone anyway._ It wasn’t that he thought Takeda would try to separate him and Ryuu to try to handle them (his other superiors, maybe, but not Take-chan), but Noya had to admit it was definitely more efficient this way.

“I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the handouts,” Takeda said. “As you’ll see, approximately 80% of Japanese citizens, between the ages of 18 and 59, support same sex marriage. The target audience of _Tanaka & Noya _ falls well within that age range. I’m not saying that hate crimes never take place or that homophobia has been eradicated, but I _am_ saying that one of our co-hosts publicly being part of the queer community would not be a death blow to this show.”

“And like I said before,” Yano said, looking over his handout, “we can diminish the effect of the blow if we square up for it. You know what I still don’t understand,” he added, turning to Noya. “Is why you didn’t tell us when you started dating this guy.”

Noya’s hackles were instantly up. “How is that any of your business? It’s not like it’s in my contract to tell you.”

“We should put that in his contact,” Hiragi said. It was hard to tell if she was joking or not.

“Is it not?” PR asked. Noya, in a petty mood, resolved never to learn her name. “Tanaka and Shimizu told us when they started dating.”

“They both work here!” Noya protested. And it wasn’t like they had announced it _right-away-_ right away, but Noya was not about to snitch on them for that. “My boyfriend doesn’t even have an Instagram!”

“That’s adorable,” Oda said. Noya honestly didn’t know how to take the tone. “What’s also adorable is how this happened the same night you posted on Instagram from the gay village. We’re lucky he didn’t take your picture there!”

“Okay _first_ of all,” Noya said. “It’s only the gay village if you know it’s the gay village which half the people in this goddamn town either don’t know or just ignore. _Second_ of all,” his volume was rising now, “It’s not like I tagged the location, I just tagged the restaurant! I’m not _that_ stupid.”

The silence that fell at his words was loaded. _Tell me I’m stupid you bastards,_ he thought, glaring at all his coworkers. _Make my goddamn day._

Takeda once again saved the situation. “The situation, as I see it,” he interjected, “is this; we want to be in control of the story but Noya-kun feels, appropriately I think, that this is a relationship that is far too new to expose it to public scrutiny. Tanaka-kun and Shimizu-chan may have gone public far earlier but then again, they both quite literally signed up for this.”

“Takeda-san,” Yano began. Takeda held up a hand.

“Let me finish please. I would like to propose that, based on what everyone has been saying during the course of this meeting, that we _will_ need to break the news at some point. But I don’t think that point has to be ‘ _right now._ ’”

For the first time all day, Noya felt himself get a real breath in.

“We could spend the rest of this meeting discussing the language of that announcement,” Takeda said. “And then whatever statement we create, we stick it in a drawer somewhere and have it ready for a moment in the future of our choosing. And in the meantime, Noya-kun will have a talk with his gentleman-caller about the need for discretion.”

Noya’s fists clenched. _Take-chan isn’t blaming anyone. Take-chan is on my side._

“Is that acceptable to everyone in this room?” Takeda asked in conclusion, favoring the room with another mild smile.

“...What if Noya and his ‘gentleman-caller,’ as you put it, break up?” Hiragi asked. 

Takeda hummed, considering. Before he could speak again, Oda chimed in. 

“It might be best for us just to treat this like it’s something that has to happen one way or another,” she said. “Like Takeda-san said, it wouldn’t necessarily be the death of the show if Noya-san comes out, and if it’s out in the open, we can address it. With lawyers if we have to.”

 _“With lawyers,” goddamn. I’m dating the sweetest, kindest human being I’ve ever met and if we have to, we can address it with_ _lawyers._ Noya clenched his fists again, then unclenched them and watched the color slowly leak back in.

“I agreed,” Yano said. “We can talk about dates once we have the statement written.”

“Excellent,” Takeda said. He turned his head. “Noya-kun? Is this acceptable to you?”

Noya lifted his head. Behind his glasses, Takeda’s eyes were unfailingly kind. 

Noya wasn’t much given to introspection, but he’d been around the block a few times. Life dealt the hand it dealt. Oh, you wanna play volleyball but you’re 165 cm tall? Fine. Become the best goddamn libero to ever set foot in this gym. Oh, the idea of going pro is killing your love of the only thing you ever wanted to do with your life? Fine. Find something new. If Nishinoya Yuu knew how to do one thing, it was how to get up off the mat. He could hate this all he wanted, but ultimately, whatever their motivations, everyone in this room was trying to help him. He had to work with them, for his sake and for Asahi’s. It was time to take the hit. 

He cleared his throat. “Let’s do this.”

It was past 1:00 in the afternoon by the time the meeting let out. Ryuu and Kiyoko had returned at some point, and Noya had felt himself relax in their presence. The meeting had birthed a document, a statement about Noya’s orientation that was going to live both on the hard drive on Noya’s work computer, and the computer at the PR office. The meeting had ended with a discussion about a timeline for Noya’s Big Coming Out. There was no annual pride parade in Tokyo, which eliminated timelines that might have been obvious in other countries. Once things had devolved to everyone furiously googling something called “Coming Out Day,” Takeda stepped back in. 

“May I suggest perhaps,” he began gently. “That in absence of a culturally relevant date, six months was not an unreasonable timeline? I know your relationship will still be young by that point, Noya-kun,” he added “But I don’t think any of us feel comfortable with waiting much longer. We don’t want to tempt fate.”

“I know,” Noya admitted begrudgingly. “I could do six months.”

Takeda smiled. “Thank you for your understanding.” He rose then to his feet and the rest of the room rose with him. “I think, because everyone came in so early today, we should all feel free to take off at 7:00 p.m. today.” 

Noya perked at this. _That’s still early. I could see Asahi._

An intern stuck their head into the boardroom. “The lunches are here,” he said. 

“Oh thank God,” Yano said. “I’m _starving._ ”

Ryuu pressed his arm against Noya’s. “Wanna take this to the office?” he asked.

Noya pushed himself up out of his chair. “You read my mind. Take-chan,” he added. “It was really good to see you today.” He held out his hand and Takeda shook it firmly. “For real,” he added quietly. “Thanks.” He couldn’t imagine what this would have felt like if Takeda hadn’t been here. He’d have been thrown to the wolves for real.

“Of course, Noya-kun,” Takeda said quietly. “I hope I have the privilege of meeting this gentleman of yours someday.”

Noya smiled. “You’d like him,” he said, because of course Takeda would.

“Good to see you, Take-chan!” Ryuu called, collecting the lunch orders for all three of them. “Don’t be a stranger, you hear?”

“It was good to see you, Tanaka-kun!” And Takeda favored them with a cheery wave as his three show hosts left the boardroom.

“Hey so,” Ryuu said as they settled into their office. Noya and Ryuu’s desks were pushed up against each other, giving them plenty of space to spread their lunches out. Ryuu pulled up an extra chair and Kiyoko settled in with them. “When you and Asahi-san started dating did any of your talks cover ‘what to do if the paparazzi email your pictures to the tv station?’”

“Nope,” Noya said with a wry smile. “Honestly, I don’t really talk about that gritty work stuff with him. He worries enough as it is.”

Ryuu frowned. “You don’t? Noya, that was like the first conversation Kiyoko and I had when we started dating.”

“Yeah but you guys were co-workers. _Are_ co-workers,” Noya pointed out.

“Yeah, but didn’t you think you should’ve prepared him? I mean you know what to expect and he doesn’t.”

Noya frowned. “Can you just lay off? I just got this from everyone in that boardroom. I don’t need it from you.”

“Sorry.” Ryuu backed off. He had a matching frown on his face too. It made Noya’s stomach churn. “I’m just trying to understand,” he grumbled, unwrapping his lunch.

“What’s done is done,” Kiyoko put in. "He already feels bad Ryuu.”

To avoid looking at either of them, Noya started to unpack his own lunch. “I just...I was in the honeymoon phase, okay? I _liked_ holing up with him and feeling like it was the two of us. I _liked_ not thinking about what it would do if everyone at work knew I was dating a guy. It made me feel like I could take care of him on my own. Maybe that was stupid,” he admitted, drained. “I don’t know.” 

Ryuu went quiet. Setting his lunch aside, he propped his forearms on the desk, palms down, fingers splayed. “Look. I don’t wanna keep getting on your case about this, okay? I’m on _your side,_ you know I am. I just. Let me say this one thing and I promise I’ll lay off.”

Noya looked at him. Then he looked at Kiyoko, even though he already knew there was no help to be found there. Kiyoko was non-confrontational to a fault. She was great at deflecting an impending argument, but if Ryuu was determined to meet something head-on, then the best thing Noya could do was grab it by the horns. Noya could do confrontation. It was just gonna hurt a little more coming from his best friend. “Fine,” he said. “What.”

“Okay, look. You remember when I wanted to ask Kiyoko to marry me? And I was losing my entire shit because she could be with any guy she wanted and I didn’t know why she wanted to be with me?”

“I remember,” Noya said. It didn’t surprise him that Ryuu would bring this up right in front of her, either. Ryuu was blunt with everyone, even himself.

“You remember how I made it your job to remove my head from my ass? You remember what you said? ‘Cause I’m gonna say that to you now.”

Noya frowned in concentration, casting his mind back. “I said a lot of things.”

Ryuu’s foot kicked at his loosely. “Snowdrop, the call is coming from inside the house, and it’s your—

“—your own ego on the line,” Noya finished. “I did say that.”

“You also said, ‘you can take care of Kiyoko by being real with her,’” Ryuu reminded him.

Noya groaned. “Man, I didn’t pull any punches, did I?”

“It’s what I like about you, Noya-san,” Ryuu said. He kicked at Noya’s foot again. Noya kicked back. “You’re someone I respect and admire a _hell_ of a lot. I don’t want you to ever doubt that. But you can’t keep Asahi-san safe from all the bigotry in the world any more than I can protect Kiyoko from every sexist douchebag. The best thing you can do to help him is teach him how to suit up.” 

“...Fuck,” Noya sighed. His hands found his own hair, clenching his fists in frustration. “Maybe you’re right.”

“We’re not blaming you,” Kiyoko broke in. “It isn’t a fault to want you and Asahi-san to have some privacy. Failing to consider your work was a miscalculation. But we all miscalculate sometimes.” She offered him a smile. Kiyoko had one of the most soothing smiles he’d ever seen. “There’s a reason I don’t run my own social media anymore, right?” 

Once upon a time, Ryuu would have growled over this reminder of all the comments people tended to leave under his wife’s posts. Now he just sighed. “Yeah, she’s right. Sorry if I made you feel bad for it.”

“You give it to me straight, babe,” Noya assured him. “That’s what I like about you.” It was true too, even if on days like today it left Noya feeling wrung-out and tired.

“Love you too, honey.” Ryuu picked up his wrap again. “And hey, you can just have that talk with Asahi-san tonight. It's the first day of the rest of your life and all that.”

“Yeah.” Noya swallowed. He steeled himself. “Yeah okay. I can do that.”

“Atta boy.”

When he was stressed, Noya tended to not have much of an appetite. Even if they’d smoothed it down in the end, his talk with Ryuu had soured his stomach. It had even soured his excitement to call Asahi. He picked at his food, feeling dread start to creep its way up his spine. Asahi had left his apartment so upset last night. He had _said_ he wasn’t dumping Noya but who knew if that decision had changed in the cold light of day? What if he’d decided, just like everyone else in this building, that he was pissed at Noya for landing him in this situation?

Suddenly, Noya stood. He couldn’t take the not knowing anymore. “I’m gonna be back,” he said, and headed for the handicap bathroom. It was a single stall, it would give him privacy. His skin was clammy and cold as he pulled out his phone to dial. This call was _not_ going to go well. It just wasn’t in the cards today. Not when even Ryuu thought Noya needed a lecture. He was just gonna have to man up and accept the fact that apparently today was Be Mad at Noya Da—

“Noya, sweetheart, are you alright?” It was Asahi's voice asked in his ear. He had picked up immediately. “What’s happening? Noya, are you okay?”

And just like that, Noya melted. “I’m okay,” he breathed. He was at the bathroom. He shoved the door open one-handed. His eyes may have been stinging. “I’m okay. They’re not firing me.”

“That’s good!” It was easy to picture Asahi holding the phone in both hands, the expression one his face one of open concern. “So what…?”

“The studio’s gonna buy the photos off that reporter guy. We talked about it. We’ll buy them off him this time, but we’re gonna make it clear that if he ever tries to pull this shit again, or if someone else does, we are going to shove a harassment lawsuit _so far up his ass,_ that he’ll be vomiting legal terms for the rest of his life.”

“Oh. Okay.” There was a pause, maybe so Asahi could think. “That’s good right? It means the studio isn’t mad at you.”

“Oh no, they were,” Noya said with a wry laugh. “But they still wanna keep me. It’s just that they don’t wanna lose one of their most popular shows, probably. They did tell me I’m gonna have to come out officially at some point though.”

“‘At some point?’” Asahi repeated. “So—”

“So, not today. We think maybe in a few months. Like six-ish.” Noya took a breath and plowed forward. “Look, can I see you? We’re getting out at 7:00 tonight ‘cause we started so early and I don’t know, I just—”

“Oh! Oh, that’s really early!” And somehow, miraculously, Asahi sounded _happy._ Noya dared to hope. “Yes, of course you can see me. Should I come to your apartment?”

“Don’t you have dinner with Dai-san’s family tonight? Your apartment’s closer to them isn’t it? I could just meet you there.”

“Oh...Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Noya said firmly, remembering last night. If Asahi ended up needing space again it would just be easier for Noya to go, instead of the other way around. “Are _you_ sure? I mean, I wouldn’t be pissed, especially after last night—”

“I’m sure, I promise. I wanted to talk to you about last night,” Asahi admitted. “I’m really sorry for how I acted.”

Noya frowned at the blank white bathroom wall opposite him, as though it might offer clarity. “Sorry for _what?_ For having an anxiety attack? How is that your fault?”

“I wanted to be able to take care of you!” Asahi insisted. “And instead you had to take care of me!”

“That’s not your fault. You didn’t see it coming, okay?” Guilt pulled at Noya’s insides, remembering Ryuu’s words. Maybe if he’d taught Asahi how to suit up for this shit, it wouldn’t have hit him so hard. “Listen, how about I make you a deal; give me a really good hug tonight and we can call it even.”

“I will,” Asahi promised. “Noya...when you come tonight, will you let me take care of you this time? Properly?”

Noya closed his eyes and breathed in slowly. It was maybe the second real breath in he’d gotten today. “How could I say no to that,” he returned, the soft smile evident in his voice. “You need me to bring anything?”

“Um, well. I was just thinking that you would be totally welcome to spend the night. If you want! Daichi and I have to work tomorrow but Suga doesn’t have to be on campus, so you wouldn’t have to leave right away in the morning. I know it’s not ideal, but I was just thinking that, since we were supposed to have a night together last night—”

“Asahi-san,” Noya cut in. “Asa-chan. Of fucking _course_ I want to spend the night with you. And,” he added reluctantly. “We have a lot we need to talk about.” God, he was so sick of talking today, but he was gonna be damned if he was gonna get caught making the same mistake twice. 

Asahi exhaled. “Yes, I think we do too.”

There was a pause while they both thought.

“How long will it take you to get here once you get off work?” Asahi asked him.

“Uhhh, one sec.” Noya took his phone away from his ear and punched Asahi’s address into the map. “30 minutes, give or take.”

“Okay, I’ll make sure to be back before then.” 

Noya smiled. “Ballin’. I’ll see you then.”

“Yes, very ballin’.” And then Asahi hesitated. “Um. Noya?”

“Hm?”

“I really like you.”

Noya inhaled sharply. Warmth bloomed throughout his entire body, the sun coming out from behind the clouds. “Hey whaddya know,” he breathed. “I really like you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This NY Times article is where I get the statistic about the increasing Japanese support of gay marriage.  
> Everyone who comments on this story really makes my day, so thank you.


End file.
